’BRIDE QUIT IN TIME
Mara hints Blue OC would have been fired
KEVIN GILBRIDE apparently announced his retirement just in time.
If the 62-year-old former Giants offensive coordinator hadn’t walked away on his own last week, Giants co-owner John Mara made it clear he was ready to push him out the door due to what he believes was a “broken” Giants offense. In an interview on WFAN on Thursday, Mara said that Gilbride definitely made the choice to retire.
But then he added, “Fortunately it didn’t come to any type of situation where he had to be forced out.”
That was very fortunate, in fact, because as the Daily News reported last week, Tom Coughlin was ready to fight for his long-time assistant whom several sources said Coughlin did not want to fire. It was unclear how far Coughlin would’ve gone to keep Gilbride, or how hard Mara would’ve pushed to force a change. But the situation had the potential to be ugly until Gilbride told Coughlin there was no need for a fight since he was ready to quietly step aside.
Mara, in his radio interview, praised the job Gilbride did with the Giants in his 10 seasons as an assistant and seven seasons as the offensive coordinator. He even chastised fans for having “short memories” about Gilbride and unfairly forgetting that “he did an outstanding job for this franchise.”
But Gilbride’s offense slipped to 28th in the NFL during the miserable 2013 season, and Mara added, “There’s no question our offense did not play well this year, and really in a number of games just put us in a hole that we could not climb out of. I think going forward having a change is probably going to be good for us.”
The search for change is already under way with two candidates to replace Gilbride having already been interviewed and at least two more on the way. On Wednesday, Coughlin met with Mike Sullivan, the former Giants quarterbacks coach, and Dowell Loggains, the former Titans offensive coordinator. And he’ll also meet with Packers quarterbacks coach Ben McAdoo and former Texans quarterbacks coach (and former UCLA head coach) Karl Dorrell in the next few days.
Sullivan has long been believed to be the favorite for the job since he’s a known commodity who runs a similar system and has the endorsement of key players such as quarterback Eli Manning and receiver Victor Cruz. But several organizational sources have cautioned against that portrayal. In fact, even Mara seemed to indicate that a bigger shake-up — such as perhaps a whole new offensive system — is exactly what the “broken” of
fense needs.
“I think there are times where you have to do that, yes,” Mara said. “Nothing lasts forever, and teams adjust to what you’re doing and sometimes you have to have some new ideas in there. I know Tom is thinking about that right now. . . . I think that is a good thing to do every once in a while, yes.”
In the meantime, the Giants’ postseason organizational meetings are still in progress, and according to a team source, the fates of the rest of Coughlin’s assistants are still unclear. All of them are under contract through the 2013 season — including embattled special teams coach Tom Quinn and defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who recently interviewed for the now-filled Redskins head coaching job. The fate of the rest of the offensive coaches likely won’t be clear until a new offensive coordinator is hired.