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Giants Coaching Carousel:  Who will be the Giants Next OC?

BY: Tom Peticca

With Coach Coughlin officially out, the Giants are beginning to interview possible candidates to replace the 2-time Super Bowl champion head coach. Many people, myself included, believe that current Offensive Coordinator is the front-runner to be named the next head coach of the New York Giants.

In his two years as the Giants Offensive Coordinator the offense has steadily improved and Eli Manning has been playing arguably his best football since entering the league in 2004. In the 2 years in McAdoo’s system Manning threw for over 4,000 yards, and in 2015 Eli tossed a career-high 35 touchdowns.

With consistent improvement on offense, McAdoo has shown deserving of the promotion to Head Coach and the opportunity to continue working with Manning. If the Giants front office decides that McAdoo is the man for the Head Coaching job that leaves his old job of Offensive Coordinator open.

In the press conference on Tuesday Owner John Mara made it clear that whomever the head coach would be would have control of his coaching staff, which, hypothetically, would allow McAdoo to choose his Offensive Coordinator replacement. This raises the question, If McAdoo does get the head coach job who would he choose to take his old job?

I believe that similar to the head coaching job, McAdoo and the Giants will choose to  promote someone already on the offensive coaching staff to be named the next Offensive Coordinator. Keeping familiar faces around will make it more likely to allow the growth of this offense to progress.

Going with this theory it would make most sense to name current quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan the next Offensive Coordinator.  Sullivan has spent nine seasons on the Giants coaching staff. He is familiar with the New York Giants culture and how things are done and he was also a part of the coaching staffs that brought New York Super Bowl winning teams in 2007 and 2011. For six seasons he was the Giants Wide Receivers coach and spent two years after that working with Eli Manning as the Giants Quarterbacks Coach.  Sullivan also has experience as an Offensive Coordinator.

He spent the 2012 and 2013 season as the Offensive Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before returning to the Giants coaching staff. In 2012 Sullivan had the Buccaneers offense ranked ninth in the NFL and set franchise records in total offense and points scored.

If Giants front office likes where the offense is heading as much as they should, than expect McAdoo and Sullivan to both be receiving promotions over the off-season. Having Eli Manning continue to play his best football is a major part of the entire interview process and both of these guys are a major part in making Eli what he has been in the past two seasons so keeping them around should be great for his progression.

@peticca95