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NFL New York Giants

Tom Coughlin Deserves One More Year With New York Giants

By @mturnerny

Tom Coughlin New York Giants

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Giants aren’t very competitive in 2014. They weren’t very competitive last year. And they haven’t been good enough to reach the playoffs in four of their last five years. With most teams, that points to a head coach out the door. That goes double for a team in a large market like New York City. Yet, head coach Tom Coughlin deserves one more year to prove he hasn’t quite lost it.

The Giants have been one of the most successful franchises of the past decade, winning two Super Bowls, and that’s in large part to Coughlin’s work with this team. That alone should earn him the right to determine when it’s time to hang up the headset, but New Yorkers have little patience and are constantly calling for him to be fired. And, sure, after this past season and this year, it’s definitely possible to argue that he deserves to go. However, it’s still too soon.

Coming into this year, no one really expected the Giants to make a deep playoff run. They were expected to be a rebuilding team that aimed to stay competitive in what was thought to be a wide-open NFC East behind the Philadelphia Eagles. And after a few growing pains early in the season, it seemed they were destined for just that – they were 3-2 with three-consecutive wins. However, a completely deflating loss to the Eagles, followed by another divisional loss to the Dallas Cowboys left the Giants floundering.

With all of that in mind, we can’t put all of the blame on Coughlin. Three very key members of the offense have missed, or will miss, significant time. Offensive guard Geoff Schwartz, running back Rashad Jennings and wide receiver Victor Cruz have all missed over four games. Then you can’t forget defensive backs Walter Thurmond III, Trumaine McBride and Prince Amukamara, as well as middle linebacker Jon Beason, are all out for the year.

That’s a tremendous amount of very important players not even including the questionable or day-to-day players on the active roster.

Yes, the Giants aren’t unique – every team suffers injuries. Teams with good depth, however, can often tread water while they wait for their stars to return. And that brings me to my next point: the recent drafts by general manager Jerry Reese have been far from great, preferring to go for upside over proven quality. This year’s draft, and even a bit of last year’s, seem to be the first drafts in a while where Reese has provided multiple, talented starters for the Giants nearly immediately.

And given even all of that, the Giants aren’t just rolling over. They’ve remained competitive in their game against the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, and even kept it close against the Cowboys. This team hasn’t given up on Tom Coughlin, and that alone should give Reese and the Giants’ brass enough reason to keep him around.

With a healthy roster, the Giants could be a better team. With some more time, Manning and the offense could become much more proficient in offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo’s system. While many speculate McAdoo is the heir apparent to Coughlin, I don’t believe his time has come just yet. Give Coughlin one more year to prove he has what it takes to lead the Giants to a playoff berth, and hopefully, to a third Super Bowl in eight years.

Matt Turner is a New York Mets writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @MturnerNY, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on LinkedIn and Google.

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