Could Doug Pederson be the Giants’ next head coach?

The New York Giants have some major, franchise altering decisions ahead of them in the coming days and weeks.

They need to decide on a new General Manager, that new GM is going to hire a new head coach, who will have to hire a new offensive coordinator, and possibly a new defensive coordinator. They’ll all have to work together to chart a new course for a franchise stuck in the doldrums.

The first of those dominoes has yet begun to even wobble (let alone fall), but that hasn’t stopped speculation on the other moves down the line.

According to BetOnline, former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson is the betting favorite to be the Giants’ new head coach.

Raptor’s Thoughts

My first thought: That’s a pretty nice Photoshop job.

My second thought: “LOL!”

Like I said up above, the Giants haven’t even finished their interviews with the nine (or more) candidates with whom they’ve requested interviews. John Mara came right out and said that the next GM will lead the search for a head coach, and the Giants haven’t even begun to name the head coaching candidates they want to interview — and they won’t until they hire a GM.

Personally, I expect the process to be a quick one, simply because practices for the East-West Shrine Game and the Reese’s Senior Bowl get started in about two week’s time. Those are two of the biggest events in the draft process, and the Giants will likely want some kind of structure in place for them.

But we’re still not there yet.

I get it, though. We’ve reach the “duck on a pond” part of the front office restructure, and folks have to talk about something. The Giants are interviewing a bunch of candidates, and they might expand the search more — but all of that is being handled inside the building. The only concrete news we’re getting is that the Giants have requested interviews and the team announcing when the interviews are completed.

That’s going to leave a vacuum for speculation, and of course people are going to place their bets on anything they can bet on. Pederson is almost certainly the betting favorite because he’s the name everyone knows, he last coached in the NFC East, and he won a Super Bowl. There aren’t going to be a ton of bets placed on “Wink” Martindale (Baltimore Ravens’ Defensive Coordinator) or Todd Downing (Tennessee Titans’ Offensive Coordinator).

Personally, I’d be surprised (maybe even stunned) if the Giants wound up hiring Pederson. Right now the best we can hope for is that the Giants hire the best candidate for general manager, and the new GM hires the best candidate for head coach.

But hey, ‘tis speculation season, and that was a pretty nifty photoshop of Pederson. Better than I could do, anyway.