Giants Head Coaching Candidate Preview: Mike McCarthy

Former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy is the next man up on the Giants head coaching interview schedule. McCarthy meets with the team Friday.

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Mike McCarthy, who interviewed with the Panthers, visits with the Giants Friday, a day after meeting with the Cleveland Browns. Like the Browns, who have Baker Mayfield, the Giants have a young quarterback, Daniel Jones, who needs continued development.

McCarthy, of course, has a history with quarterbacks, having worked with Aaron Rodgers to help him develop into one of the most prolific signal-callers in the league today.

During his sabbatical, McCarthy put together a group of coaches, including Jim Haslett, Frank Cignetti Jr (Ben McAdoo’s quarterbacks coach with the Giants), and Scott McCurley.

This small group of coaches set about to study emerging trends across the league while figuring out how to marry analytics into the analysis so that if/when they return to the NFL, they might bring with them some new concepts that can take the league by storm.

As for where the 56-year-old McCarthy might land, some believe he might be drawn to the Browns, where Eliot Wolf, Cleveland’s assistant general manager, is currently employed.

Wolf and McCarthy previously spent 12 seasons together in Green Bay, enjoying winning seasons during nine of those 12 years, including four championship appearances and one Super Bowl victory (XLV) over the Steelers.

Might McCarthy, whose coaching tree gave Giants fans Ben McAdoo, be a good fit for the Giants? And if he is the man for the Giants, how do we know if he’ll be a better fit despite running the same offense McAdoo run?

Considering McCarthy is an experienced play-caller who can adjust. In contrast, McAdoo stayed married to his plan in the hopes it would work. So it probably wouldn’t be a stretch to say that McCarthy is capable of adjusting if something isn’t working.

Why He’s an Appealing Candidate

McCarthy has the most extensive NFL head coaching resume of the reported candidates. Holder of a 125-77-2 regular-season record that includes winning the Super Bowl in 2010 and making the playoffs in nine of his 13 seasons as head coach.

McCarthy has only had one season in his 13-year head coaching career in which he suffered double-digit losses (2008) and has put together offenses that have finished int the top-10 league-wide in nine seasons.

One of McCarthy’s most significant accomplishments as a head coach was the work he did with Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.

In 2005, the year before McCarthy was hired to be the Packers head coach, Favre recorded a career-high 29 interceptions. In each of the next two seasons, McCarthy helped Favre reduce that number while at the same time working to develop an up-and-coming prospect by the name of Aaron Rodgers.

McCarthy also comes with a reputation as being a good teacher, which is going to be an essential trait in getting this young Giants team on the road to success.

The last thing they need is a hard-nosed taskmaster who toys with the confidence of these youngsters as they develop confidence.

With McCarthy, he stresses teaching and showing the players the “whys” behind what he wants to see done.

WATCH: Mike McCarthy Reflect on His Time with the Packers and his Future

Why the Giants Should Look Elsewhere

McCarthy is rooted in the West Coast Offense, and while he did win a Super Bowl with the Packers in 2010, teams that run the West Coast Offense just haven’t had success winning Super Bowls this century.

There is also a concern that a pure WCO isn’t necessarily the right system to bring out the best of Daniel Jones’ talents, though it should be noted that Pat Shurmur ran elements of the WCO during his one season working with Jones.

Key Interview Question to Ask

What’s going to be your approach toward balancing the offense, with specifics to the deployment of the running game?

If there has been a major complain about McCarthy during his time in Green Bay, it’s been his propensity to prematurely abandon the running game, even when it was working, and rely too heavily on Aaron Rodgers to get the job done.

That approach, if continued (if he’s hired), certainly isn’t going to sit well with the Giants, not after they invested the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 draft on Saquon Barkley.

In addition to having a plan to continue developing quarterback Daniel Jones—an area in which McCarthy has experience—the next head coach must have a plan for better optimizing Barkley’s talents not just as a running back but also as a receiver in space.

On the Beat

Hear a snippet of what Peter Bukowski, host of the LockedOn Packers podcast, had to say about McCarthy.

To hear the full interview with Bukowski, please check out the latest edition of the LockedOn Giants podcast (segments two and three).