THE BIG ‘0’
More than ever, Giants must focus on punching up offense in high-octane NFL
Six of the eight NFL head coaching vacancies this offseason went — and went quickly — to offensive coaches. Three of the four head coaches in Sunday’s NFC and AFC Championship Games are innovative offensive minds: the Chiefs’ Andy Reid, the Saints’ Sean Payton and the Rams’ Sean McVay. The other is the Patriots’ Bill Belichick, arguably the greatest head coach of all-time.
The four remaining teams, who all earned first-round byes, had the NFL’s top four regularseason offenses: Chiefs (35.3 points per game), Rams (32.9), Saints (31.5) and Patriots (27.2).
And 10 of the league’s 12 playoff teams this year finished in the top 13 in scoring, the lone exceptions being the Eagles (22.9) and Cowboys (21.2).
This is more than a trend. It is a mandate: build an explosive offense or make plans to watch football from the couch come January.
And Giants GM Dave Gettleman, while he must add talent on both sides of the ball, must remain cognizant of this glaring NFL reality this offseason.
The Giants already feel they have some of the pieces in place, starting with secondyear head coach Pat Shurmur, who also calls the Giants’ plays on offense.
Shurmur hails from Reid’s coaching tree, working a decade under Big Red in Philadelphia (1999-2008). Maybe he isn’t on the McVay inner circle like some of this year’s sexy young hires, but in 2017 Shurmur’s Vikings offense beat McVay’s Rams, 24-7, in Minnesota in Week 11.
Shurmur won the 2017 assistant coach of the year award for a reason, and though his Giants offense stumbled badly in the first half of 2018, Shurmur demonstrated an ability to scheme receivers open and cater calls to maximize some of his personnel’s skill sets.
He did it despite some of Big Blue’s personnel shortcomings, namely at quarterback and on the offensive line. As a result, the Giants finished 16th in the NFL at 23.1 points per game, though it also wasn’t enough of an improvement from 2017’s 15.4 points per game average (31st).
After all, any team that adds a healthy Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley to its offense had better score more points, and though Shurmur’s unit made strides, it happened too late in the season to make a difference.
Now the question is how much more help Gettleman gives Shurmur on offense through trades, free agency and the draft.
The defense needs a talent infusion, no question, but in the modern NFL, it would be mal-
practice for the Giants to make only minor changes to their offense and expect different results.
Specifically, at quarterback, a lot of the new coaching hires in the NFL have been made with the development of a young QB in mind.
The Jets brought in Adam Gase to mentor former No. 3 overall pick Sam Darnold. Freddie Kitchens was retained and hired in Cleveland to get the best out of No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield.
Kliff Kingsbury is in Arizona to work with Josh Rosen. Bruce Arians is in Tampa to try to rebuild the career of former top pick Jameis Winston.
The two new coaches from McVay’s tree — Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor and Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur — are in more unique situations. LaFleur has the opportunity to win with one of the best QB’s of all-time, Aaron Rodgers. Taylor inherits Andy Dalton.
Shurmur was hired, by comparison, at a time when the Giants went the other way from most of these teams, recommitting to Manning, who is now 38 years old, and making no meaningful moves to address their future without him.
That put them in the difficult predicament they’re in now: they need to win more than five games in 2019, while also setting in a motion a succession plan to stay competitive for years to come.
Gettleman keeps saying he’ll make the decision that’s in the best interest of the Giants organization. But he should know what’s in their absolute best interest: scoring more points.
That’s the priority. So wherever that leads him, that’s where the GM’s focus must go.