Giants Lose Out on McCarthy Who Heads to Dallas

The New York Giants head coach search took a very circuitous twist Monday morning when news came down that the Dallas Cowboys hired former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy for their vacancy.

The news came down just days after the Cowboys dismissed Jason Garrett after ten years on the job. As was reported by Fox Sports Jay Glazer on Sunday, Garrett refused to accept being fired by the Cowboys, despite Dallas brass telling him consistently that he was indeed out.

At the same time, Glazer reported McCarthy was interviewing with Dallas for a second straight day. That was on Sunday.

By Monday morning it was done deal, McCarthy was now the head man of the Cowboys.

Let's be honest this a brilliant move for Jerry Jones and company. They get an experienced head coach with a Super Bowl on his resume. Yes, McCarthy had his issues with Green Bay toward the end of his tenure, the infamous Bleacher Report story about McCarthy's final days with the Packers did him no favors, but there is little arguing over how good of a coach he is.

As was described by NFL.com writer Tom Pelissero, McCarthy has been itching to comeback. A video Pelissero posted on NFL.com shows McCarthy with his assistants hunkered down in his basement working on player charts, statistics and making a study of the landscape of the NFL in 2019-20. He was ready for this jump back into the mix. As McCarthy said in the interview, he and his family "needs football."

Unfortunately, the Giants didn't get that memo, or at least they didn't feel McCarthy was a fit. The Giants are the second New York team to pass on McCarthy; the Jets did the same last year settling on Adam Gase. That didn't work out for Gang Green.

And with the way things are playing out, it won't work out for Big Blue. The Giants are now in a division where three Super Bowl head coaches reside: McCarthy in Dallas, Doug Pederson in Philadelphia and Ron Rivera (who took Carolina to the big game four years ago) is in Washington.

And the Giants are going to settle on Matt Rhule? Josh McDaniels? Jason Garrett? Really? This is the answer the Giants are going to give to their suddenly abused fan base?

Giants fans should be upset over this news. Their front office doesn't appear to know what it is doing, and it is becoming painfully obvious that nobody wants to work with David Gettleman who is on the hottest of hot seats this season. Why didn't the Giants fire Gettleman along with Shurmur? It is anyone's guess.

The media favorite for the Giants job appears to be Rhule. The newspapers keep fawning over the idea of the Baylor coach coming to New York to take over the team, but we ask why? What is so special about Matt Rhule?

Yes, Rhule turned around Temple and Baylor in three short seasons at each stop, but it's not like either program is the next Alabama or Georgia. Baylor might become a National power one day -- if Rhule stays, but let's take it easy before crowning this guy the next great head coach.

People made that same mistake with Chip Kelly a few years ago when he went to Philadelphia. That worked out so well that the Eagles couldn't wait to get Kelly out of the building before hiring Pederson to get the franchise back on track.

College coaches don't necessarily work out in the NFL.

Nick Saban was 15-17;  Bobby Petrino was 3-10 before quitting on the Falcons; Lane Kiffin was 5-15 in Oakland; Greg Schiano went 11-21 with Tampa Bay; Steve Spurior went 12-20 with the Redskins, and even Lou Holtz went 3-10 with the Jets way back in 1976.

Finding a Jimmy Johnson is hard to do. If the Giants hire Rhule and he proves to be the exception to the rule (no pun intended) the Giants will ask for plenty of apologies from people like me. Until then, the Giants are heading down a dark and dower road to nowheresville.