Giant brass sits down with Wilks
THE Giants resumed their coaching search on Tuesday with Panthers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, who met with with team president John Mara, GM Dave Gettleman, assistant GM Kevin Abrams and chairman Steve Tisch at the team facility in East Rutherford.
It was the first time Tisch met with a head coaching candidate. The Daily News learned he did not meet with the others over the weekend because he was out of the country.
Wilks, 48, is by no means the favorite to land the job, but he is still seen to have a legitimate chance because of his strong relationship with Gettleman from their four years in Carolina together. Gettleman thinks highly of Wilks and was eager to get him in front of ownership, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
Wilks has been the assistant head coach the last three seasons in Carolina and was only defensive coordinator this past season, in which the Panthers ranked 11th in points allowed and gave up the seventh-fewest total yards. He was also the defensive backs coach from 2012-16.
He has been a secondary and defensive backs coach in the league since 2005 while coaching the Bears, Chargers and Washington and on the staffs of head coaches Joe Gibbs, Lovie Smith, Norv Turner and Ron Rivera.
He also went to the Super Bowl with the Bears in 2006 and Panthers in 2015.
The biggest hurdle for Wilks is that he has no head coaching experience in the NFL.
Mara has said he “ideally” would like for his next head coach to have that experience after novice head coach Ben McAdoo did not work out. Gettleman has also said it is preferable, but not a dealbreaker.
Wilks does have head coaching experience at the college level with Savannah State, but that was one season in 1999.
The Cardinals and Lions also plan to interview Wilks while the Panthers already appear to be reorganizing their coaching staff on one side of the ball, firing offensive coordinator Mike Shula and quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey on Tuesday.
Because Wilks’ background is in defense, it is hard to gauge what his vision will be for Eli Manning and the Giants quarterback situation, but it is possible he can bring in an experienced offensive coordinator with whom he has worked, such as Turner or Shula, to help in that department.
The Giants are also in desperate need of a culture change and some former players from Wilks' season as defensive backs coach at Notre Dame told the Daily News earlier this week that he is “extremely disciplined” and a “hard-nosed coach, focuses on attention to detail.” Wilks is the fifth coach to be interviewed by the Giants, who are scheduled to meet former Broncos running back coach Eric Studesville today. That will likely complete the first round of interviews.