Giants make it Official: Fire Pat Shurmur; Baylor's Rhule Fav to Get Job

The Pat Shurmur era is over in New York. The Giants fired Shurmur this morning less than a day after his team completed a 4-12 campaign with a lopsided 34-17 loss to the NFC East Champion Philadelphia Eagles.

Shurmur was 9-23 in two seasons at the helm of Big Blue. His teams often didn't compete well enough in games, especially this season as Shurmur benched quarterback Eli Manning after only two games, opting to go for the future with quarterback Daniel Jones. While Jones had his moments, he was under center during a hideous nine-game losing streak, and developed a ability to fumble the football at inopportune times.

It was apparent really from the first day he was hired by GM David Gettleman that Shurmur was in over his head. He never looked comfortable here, waging wars with the media, especially WFAN host Mike Francesa, and never carried himself as a leader of men after losses. Shurmur shrugs became a thing of commonplace.

With Shurmur out the Giants opted to keep Gettleman in place, a controversial decision, since he is one who built this team the past two seasons. A lot of rumors circulated this week that the Giants front office was split on whether to keep Gettleman or not. John Mara wanted continuity, while co-owner Steve Tisch wanted both Gettleman and Shurmur out the door.

Instead Gettleman will remain, and will get to pick the next head coach. This doesn't always work out for the best. Just look at the Jets. That franchise tried this kind of move several times, only to have it blow up in their faces, most recently this year when they kept GM Mike Maccagnan and fired Todd Bowles. Maccagnan was fired last June during a power trip by head coach Adam Gase, who Maccagnan agreed to hire.

The Giants are going to have to act quickly to find a new head coach. Top names are peeling off quickly, and there is already speculation that some candidates don't want to come to New York to work with Gettleman.

Ron Rivera who worked with Gettleman in Carolina is expected to become the next head coach of the Washington Redskins, so he is now off the wish list.

Mike McCarthy is getting heavily courted by the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns.

There is a lot of speculation that the Giants could go after Baylor head coach Matt Rhule, which would certainly be an out-of-the-box hire.

Rhule worked one season with the Giants as an offensive line assistant in 2012, before moving to college as a head coach. He has been credited with turning around both the Temple Owls and Baylor Bears in short periods of time. Case in point, Baylor was 1-11 in Rhule's first season back in 2017. They went 11-2 this year and are in the Sugar Bowl.

Rhule has been linked to the NFL for some time. He interviewed for the Colts job two years ago, and was a strong candidate for the Jets job last year. In fact, the Jets offered him the job, but a disagreement over the handling of personnel ended talks as Rhule went back to Baylor.

It is anyone's guess how much control Rhule is going to seek from a team like the Giants, and if he is willing to work under Gettleman.

If the Giants really want Rhule, they might have to hurry. The Dallas Cowboys fired Jason Garrett Monday afternoon, and Rhule is a candidate for that Cowboys job as well.

It is amazing how NFL teams are tripping over themselves to interview a college coach who is only five games over .500 and never won a National Championship.

If the Giants lose out on Rhule, or if he flat out rejects them, another potential candidate could be Garrett. Garret has Giants connections dating back to his playing days in the early 2000's when he was the back-up quarterback to Kerry Collins. Earlier this year, Garrett was linked to as a potential candidate for the Giants job.

If the Giants were to pursue and hire Garrett, it would be ironic, because they would be following the same pattern the Jets followed in hiring Gase -- a failed coach from a division rival.