SHAKE IT UP!
NFC East ousters will have big impact around NFL, and on fate of rival Giants
The results of the NFL’s Wild Card playoff round ratcheted up the intrigue for the Giants in the NFC East. The frontrunning Dallas Cowboys delivered their annual postseason choke job, a complete noshow against the Green Bay Packers that has head coach Mike McCarthy on the hot seat.
The once-dominant Philadelphia Eagles looked like one of the worst teams in the league while losing their sixth of seven games in a rout by Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Head coach Nick Sirianni is on the hot seat one year after taking his team to the Super Bowl.
The perennially inferior Washington Commanders hired new GM Adam Peters from the San Francisco 49ers, and Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is near the top of their list for head coaching candidates as their search rolls on.
The regressing Giants, meanwhile, are reeling off the dysfunction of a disappointing 2023 season, interviewing candidates for several coaching vacancies during an unsteady time for Brian Daboll and his staff.
This amounts to potential widespread upheaval that promises to shake the landscape of these rivalries and this division entering a tantalizing 2024.
Word around the NFL, before the playoff started, was that Bill Belichick’s most likely match would be the Atlanta Falcons, but if the Cowboys job came open, that had a chance to change everything.
And just like that, McCarthy and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn both seemingly took their names out of the running to be Dallas’ head coach next season with an abysmal performance against Matt LaFleur’s Packers.
The NFL world now is waiting to see if Jerry Jones will see his shadow and allow 12 more months of disappointment or if he’ll move on to big-game hunting on the coaching circuit.
Over in Philadelphia, the Eagles are hard to read so soon after their elimination, but they’ve already suffered a major loss that will impact the balance of the NFC East: the retirement of center Jason Kelce.
The veteran’s dominance in the middle has defined the division for years, and his absence could open the door for the Giants’ Dexter Lawrence and others to have more success up the middle against Philly’s offense.
It’s possible Sirianni will stay with all of his coordinators getting fired. Or maybe owner Jeffrey Lurie will blow it up. But the presence of big names on the free agent coaching market creates a ton of unpredictability.
Mike Tomlin reportedly told his players he plans to coach in Pittsburgh again next season. If Tomlin came available, he would immediately become a top candidate in Dallas, Philadelphia and anywhere else he wished if he wanted to coach next season.
Most people in the league believe Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, fresh off a National Championship, is a likely match for the Los Angeles Chargers if he leaves college football. But it’s also possible he will consider more options before making a final call.
Longtime Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is available, too, and doesn’t sound like a man who is tired or rundown. It’s possible his interest in a specific job will pick up steam.
It’s been mostly quiet around the Seahawks, who only recently started submitting slips for head coach interviews, including Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. That’s his second interview after already speaking with the Tennessee Titans.
Former Titans coach Mike Vrabel feels like a possible good fit for Philadelphia, where his former Tennessee receiver A.J. Brown now plays, perhaps while bringing former Falcons head coach/Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith along with him.
It’s just not clear how Lurie and Howie Roseman will react yet. It certainly seemed like Lurie was disgusted and numb to his team’s lifeless state in Tampa, so it’s hard to believe he’ll be patient.
But there are other vacancies in the league that warrant monitoring, like the Las Vegas Raiders, where interim coach Antonio Pierce has a strong chance to get the full-time gig but Harbaugh is viewed as a dark horse.
The Carolina Panthers and Titans jobs also sit open, with young candidates Brian Callahan (Bengals OC), Mike McDonald (Ravens DC), Bobby Slowik (Texans OC) in the league-wide mix.
And the Patriots strangely — but not unexpectedly — filled Belichick’s seat with in-house candidate Jerod Mayo, without even conducting a search.
Back in East Rutherford, meanwhile, as the coaching carousel spins, John Mara and the Giants have a Joe Schoen-Daboll regime facing pressure to get the program back on track in year three.
So far there are no signs that the organization has reconsidered its support of Daboll despite the public revelation of the Giants’ many internal issues on Monday.
It would be wise to consider all options with so many premier coaching candidates available. But on Tuesday, the Giants continued the process of filling vacancies.
They re-hired former strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman as “executive director of player performance.” He had worked the last four years at Indiana University following a four-year stint (2016-19) with the Giants under Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur. He replaces Craig Fitzgerald, who left for the University of Florida.
And Daboll hired longtime Saints running backs coach Joel Thomas to coach the Giants’ running backs. He replaces Jeff Nixon, who left recently to become Syracuse’s new offensive coordinator.
How the Cowboys and Eagles proceed after their disappointing eliminations will be fascinating to watch as the Giants try to get their house in order, replace Wink Martindale at the helm of their defense and set a more constructive course for 2024.
Washington’s retooling under its new ownership could mean a new challenge down near D.C.
The NFC East, bottom line, may look drastically different by the end of this week, let alone by the start of next season. The question is whether that will mean an opportunity for the Giants in division or an even steeper climb, if they sit idle while their rivals turn over and upgrade their leadership.