This job stands out among rest
IT IS a high-stakes game of head-coaching musical chairs as Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia, Jim Schwartz, Steve Wilks and Pat Shurmur were summoned to sit down and state their case to two, three and as many as four franchises desperate to find the right man for their vacancy.
If they were smart, they would wait on the New York Football Giants.
It is easily the best destination on the market.
The crown jewel of opportunities.
Come to New York, dare to be great in a place where if you make it here, you can make it anywhere.
The Post ranking of the best franchises for a head coach with Super Bowl ambitions:
1. GIANTS: Start with ownership. John Mara and Steve Tisch are classy and loyal men who bleed Giant blue. Dave Gettleman is just the franchise’s third general manager since George Young passed the baton to Ernie Accorsi in 1998. Gettleman, a former longtime Giant, is in lockstep with the philosophy. The faces change. The expectations do not. Mara and Tisch will provide any resource they can to win.
The new head coach will inherit the second pick of the 2018 draft. One option: secure his Quarterback of the Future and try to win with Eli Manning at the same time. A succession plan that could also involve Davis Webb. The other option: Move on from Manning and trust Gettleman will find you your Carson Wentz.
Odell Beckham Jr. will be on his best behavior assuming he heard Gettleman say he only wants professional football players as opposed to players who play professional football. Especially with OBJ’s designs on a $100 million contract.
Other young foundation pieces in place include Evan Engram, Sterling Shepard, Landon Collins and Dalvin Tomlinson.
New York: if you can’t deal with the media, if euphoria-or-disaster is not for you, don’t come here. But the potential rewards … who wouldn’t shoot for a parade through the Canyon of Heroes? There is no better place to win.
Projected 2018 cap space: $24.4 million.
2. COLTS: This is totally contingent on Andrew Luck returning to full health. Colts fans were led to believe Luck’s surgical shoulder would be ready for the 2017 season. It wasn’t. Owner Jim Irsay: “You guys don’t know the type of fever he has for success right now. It’s a 107-degree fever towards success right now, the intensity that he has.”
The new head coach will be respected GM Chris Ballard’s first hire. Ballard is one year into the rebuilding of the Colts, and the third pick in the draft will help.
The owner has had personal issues and likes Twitter slightly less than President Trump, so there’s that. But Chuck Pagano lasted six seasons and missed the playoffs the last three before Irsay fired him.
For those who favor a smaller media microscope, this would be the place.
Projected 2018 cap space: $78.6 million.
3. LIONS: The rabid fan base remains one Super Bowl championship behind the Jets. GM Bob Quinn has the 20th pick in the draft and will be hiring his first head coach following a 9-7 record under Jim Caldwell.
Franchise QB Matthew Stafford is a good place to start, with aerial weapons Golden Tate, Marvin Jones Jr. and Kenny Golladay.
Biggest problem: Aaron Rodgers’ Packers and the Vikings are in the division. Projected cap space: $49.9 million. 4. RAIDERS: Jon Gruden likely gets to inherit QB Derek Carr and DE Khalil Mack, along with the ninth or 10th pick in the draft, pending a coin flip with the 49ers. Projected 2018 cap space: $24.9 million. 5. CARDINALS: It’s past time for GM Steve Keim, who passed on Carr and Dak Prescott, to draft Carson Palmer’s successor after missing the playoffs in 2016 and 2017. As well as the next Larry Fitzgerald.
The fan base is the Red Sea at University of Phoenix Stadium, and any president and owner (Michael Bidwill) who sends a private jet to O’Hare Airport to transport Kurt Warner’s stranded family so it could attend his HOF induction party in Canton deserves kudos.
Keim, the 2014 executive of the year, has the 15th pick in the draft and already has young foundation pieces in RB David Johnson, OLB Chandler Jones and CB Patrick Peterson. Projected 2018 cap space: $15.7 million. 6. BEARS: Since taking over as chairman in 2011, George McCaskey will preside over his fifth different general manager-coach combination. Papa Bear Halas has been rolling over in his grave after seven consecutive seasons out of the playoffs. They’re now the Munsters of the Midway.
GM Ryan Pace’s future rests on whether QB Mitchell Trubisky proves him right for trading up from third to second in the 2017 draft. He has the eighth pick this time and a wide receiver is needed because 2015 first-round WR Kevin White (21 career catches in five games, no TDs) can’t stay on the field.
Projected cap space: $43 mil
lion.