Giants coaching search: Mike McCarthy interview is next step

An interview with former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy on Friday will be the next step in the New York Giants search for a head coach.

McCarthy, of course, has the deepest resume of any of the seven candidates the Giants currently identified.

McCarthy has a 125-77-2 regular season record, a .618 winning percentage. His teams are 18-10 in the playoffs, and Green Bay won the 2010 Super Bowl under his direction.

He was fired with the Packers 12 games into the 2018 season, his 13th in Green Bay. At the time the Packers were 4-7-1, headed for a second straight losing season. McCarthy was a candidate for the New York Jets vacancy a year ago, but did not get the job and stayed out of football.

McCarthy coached both Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, and his resume makes him a seemingly solid candidate to develop Daniel Jones. Still, there were questions in his final seasons with the Packers as to whether or not his offensive approach had gone stale.

Here’s Jason B. Hirschhorn of SB Nation’s Acme Packing Company on McCarthy:

“Despite the way his Green Bay tenure ended, I don’t think he’s a bad coach. Clearly, the philosophical differences between him and Rodgers caused issues, but it’s not as though the Packers literally ran the same thing for 13 years. I don’t think the way he’s branding himself as analytically minded is bullshit, either. They used probabilities and research to alter things from game-day decisions to practice schedules. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the right coach for the Giants, but a lot of the criticisms he received on the way out mirror what was said about Andy Reid when the Eagles fired him. A fresh start could unlock a lot for McCarthy, and it’s not as though there’s a ton of great alternatives lying around.”

McCarthy interviewed on Thursday for the Cleveland Browns vacant head-coaching position. There have been some reports that McCarthy, along with Baylor coach Matt Rhule, could be at the top of the list of candidates for the Giants.

The Giants interviewed Dallas Cowboys defensive passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach Kris Richard on Thursday. They have interviews scheduled on Saturday with Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Don Martindale and Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.