Redskins on Spagnuolo's trail

by Ed Valentine on Feb 5, 2008 7:21 AM EST in News Comment 16 comments

Today is a great day to be a New York Giants' fan.

The team will celebrate its Super Bowl XLII championship by parading down the city's Canyon of Heroes this morning.

After all the backslapping, hand-shaking and celebrating, though, the Giants might begin to feel the sting of what often happens to teams that win.

They find it impossible to keep the gang together.

It seems the Giants could be on the verge of losing defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who will talk to the Washington Redskins about their head coaching job some time in the next few days.

"I just wanted to let all of this (Super Bowl) stuff settle before making any decisions," Spagnuolo said.

Losing Spagnuolo, whose passion, energy and aggressive style turned a porous defense into a dominant, championship-caliber one, would be a devastating blow to the Giants.

Giants GM Jerry Reese understands what he has in Spagnuolo.

"We’ll make every effort to keep him," Reese said. "We sure don’t want to play against him with the Redskins because we know what he’ll bring to the table. If he gets a shot at a head coach’s job, godspeed."

The Giants' defenders, who took so well to his aggressive style and executed his complicated blitz packages to perfection, certainly don't want to go into next season without him.

Unless Reese is creative, though, the Giants may have to do just that.

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Please Mara & Reese

For the love of god and everything holy do everything in your power to keep this man in NY!

by potroast on Feb 5, 2008 9:30 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

We have to accept that they might not be able to.

It all depends on how much Spags wants to be an head coach--NOW. If they offer to make him Assistant Head Coach with a promise to promote upon TC's retirement, will he take it? I believe the Giants are the best organization to work for in the NFL, so he might.
You know Snyder will throw the kind of money at him that the Giants can't match. If he takes it, then what? Will the Giants go after Greg Williams? Someone else? Will they promote from within?
Mara and Reese have yet to take a false step. I want to keep him as much as anyone, but if we can't, I have the utmost faith that M&R will make the best of the situation.
Spags will do what he thinks is best for him. If he decides to go, I wish him the best. There're a lot of reasons we won the SB, and his coaching is one, perhaps even the single most important.
I'll always be thankful to him for that.

by george cronin on Feb 5, 2008 10:02 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

Spags has earned the right to go if he wants to. He had a brilliant season and put himself in position to be courted. Good for him if he chooses to go, though the Giants will miss him. I question, though, why he would go to D.C. to work for a loose cannon like Dan Snyder who has already hired the coordinators. That is not a recipe for success for a new head coach.

by Ed Valentine on Feb 5, 2008 10:45 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Let's hope Spags feels the same way

I think that unless your name is Joe Gibbs, the Redskins job might be the second worst head coaching job in the NFL, behind only the Raiders. Snyder is a lunatic who wants to run the team on a daily basis...he's basically a mini-Jerry Jones, only without any of Jones' talents. What kind of organization fires its extremely popular assistant coaches (one of whom many fans wanted to see elevated to HC), only to then go and hire new coordinators BEFORE hiring a head coach. I mean, I can understand firing them because you want the new head coach to bring in his own staff OR keeping the guys you already have and forcing the head coach to work with them, but hiring new guys and then forcing a head coach to work with them is asinine.

Let's hope Spags sticks around for another year at least, in the hopes that a better job comes along next year. Maybe Coughlin will be ready to retire by then??

by cjmulrain on Feb 5, 2008 11:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

thats funny

i just posted almost the exact same thing below.

by DieEaglesDie on Feb 5, 2008 12:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You're right.

Thank God for Snyder. If he offers enough $ though, Spags may feel he has no choice but to give the HC job with the'skins a shot.

by george cronin on Feb 5, 2008 1:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

There's the rub

The defense made stop after stop when needed and their play was critical in our win; however, we wouldn't have scored the go-ahead TD without the offense, either.

I just can't decifer which is more important to me right now....but it would be super-retarded to just let Spags go, and the Giants have done things like that before....They'll offer him coordinator money and nothing higher.

We didn't even have a chance for the "perfect season", but we did have the perfect ending.

by GAgiantfan on Feb 5, 2008 10:41 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

lots of buzz in dc over spags

if i were him tho i would NOT want to work for that clown snyder. just look how he's treated ever other head coach and coordinator not named gibbs.

i'd much prefer for another year or two under coughlin and then take over the reigns. now that coughlin's got a ring how much longer is he going to coach? im not looking to push him out the door obviously but it cant be too long before we'll need a replacement. why not some continuity and stability with a solid franchise then that pathetic circus they run in the potomac drainage basin? of course im obviously more than a little biased.

by DieEaglesDie on Feb 5, 2008 11:59 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Food for thought

I've been reading EA's book (The GM) and Coughlin is quoted as saying "he'll probably kick two days later when he's done coaching." The point, TC loves what he does, and Spags probably knows this. So any attempts to make Spags Asst HC and promise him the position could conceivably be 4-5 years down the road, esp if TC continues his success (3-4 in making playoffs, 1 SB). Personally, I feel Spags should not work for Dan Snyder who is an idiot of an owner. Staying with the Giants will season him even more and you know there will be openings come next year (Seattle anyone?). Finally, who the hell wants to work for someone who has chosen your assistants? Snyder is already setting a precedent of control. If you are going to take on something like that, bring in guys you get to interview. Not that Jim Fassel recommended.

www.billkohut.com

by bk0831 on Feb 5, 2008 12:19 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

TC

pretty much now has a blank check to stay as long as he wants. My guess is that's gonna be a while. Spags is not going to wait if TC decides he wants to be around for another four years or so. I just hope he waits one more year and gets himself a better opportunity that working for Snyder, who is a coach-killer.

by Ed Valentine on Feb 5, 2008 12:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed.

TC's new contract will almost undoubtedly be his last. It just comes down to how many years. If it's not too far out, doesn't it make sense to offer Spags head-coach-in-waiting with a healthy bump in salary? It would provide some sense of continuity and stability over the long run, and the Giants can certainly afford it.

by django48 on Feb 5, 2008 5:25 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm for it django,

but if Spags has a burning desire to be an HC, that won't hold him. He's 49. He might jump at the chance. As for money, if Snyder really wants him, he'll pay more for him than the Giants can reasonably spend. Basically, the ball's in Spags's court. Does he want to stay with the best bosses in football? Will Snyder's $ tempt him to jump into an undesireble situation in Washington?

by george cronin on Feb 5, 2008 6:44 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think I just saw where

Williams, def.c. for Washington, has moved on to Jacksonville. At least we know he won't be the head coach in Washington next year.

We didn't even have a chance for the "perfect season", but we did have the perfect ending.

by GAgiantfan on Feb 5, 2008 6:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Didn't know Williams went elsewhere.

Here's an idea I got today. If management has enough confidence to promote the current defensive line coach to defensive coordinator, how about Strahan as defensive line coach? If they promote a different defensive coach, maybe the defensive line coach can fill the void left by whoever else is promoted and Stray could still be the defensive line coach. If we bring in a coordinator from outside, he would probably want to change Spag's system. He might even want to replace one or all of Spag's assistants. The Giants have a rich tradition of player coaches. (eg., Friedman, Owen, Leemans, Landry.) The other defensive linemen would play like hell for Stray. He's been around for fifteen years and has been coached by a couple of defensive geniuses. He has to have learned a lot. Of course, Stray would have to appear in training camp. I think TC would let him do whatever work Stray felt necessary to get in shape for play on opening day. Of course, Stray might not want to coach at all.

by george cronin on Feb 5, 2008 8:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I like the idea

but it seems like player-coaches have gone the way of the dodo. When was the last time in any sport that a team had a player-coach situation? I feel like it's been at least 15-20 years, maybe longer (I know Joe Torre was a player-manager in his last days with the Mets in the early 80's, was he the last one?)

by cjmulrain on Feb 6, 2008 10:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs