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Tom Coughlin Has Earned the Right For One Last Chance With New York Giants

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By @AnthonyBeers

Tom Coughlin

The Star-Ledger-USA TODAY Sports

“Discontent is the first necessity for progress,” Tom Coughlin reported to the media yesterday. This was in light of the news that New York Giants owner John Mara had elected to keep Coughlin as coach of the team. He has one more year remaining on his current contract. With no signs of interest in retirement, Coughlin has to give the Giants a positive season in 2015 to stick around.

The Giants made the right decision. Firing Coughlin would have slowed the process to win again, not enhance it. What coaches on the market could have quickly improved the quality of the team? Perhaps Jim Harbaugh, but he promptly signed with the Michigan Wolverines.

Coughlin’s situation is highly unusual. Most 69-year-olds who have won two Super Bowls are pretty content with their football careers and embrace retirement. But Coughlin is as eager and energetic as he’s ever been. Players have explained that he can often be seen in the weight room at around 5 a.m. before team meetings and practices.

The question is this: Would it be right to fire a proven winner for laying two losing seasons in a row?

It’s not an obvious management decision. Odds are the opinions of the players made an impact on Mara’s decision to keep Coughlin. Team captain and quarterback Eli Manning has defended Coughlin since the rumors of his departure began to spread. Coughlin is the only head coach in the NFL that Manning has ever known throughout his 10-year career. Keeping the Manning-Coughlin tandem was the right call for the Giants.

Offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo did what he said he was going to do. He improved Manning’s completion percentage and dropped his amount of interceptions. The Giants are high on the improvement of the offense and are banking on steady improvement for the 2015 season.

What Giants fans should be worried about is how the defense will pan out in 2015. Odds are the injured reserve won’t steal as many starters as it did in 2014, but the defensive schemes of coordinator Perry Fewell had fans raising eyebrows and wanting answers. The players under-performed the system as well, but the absurdity of third-and-long soft coverage zone approaches were way too frequent for the Giants not to propose something. Even when the Giants had great success, Fewell’s defense gave up a lot of yardage.

Coughlin has to deliver a successful season in 2015; otherwise the Giants will simply finish up their contract agreement and part ways. As a coach who has provided ultimate memories for the franchise, he has earned this luxury. But for what might be the fourth or fifth time, Coughlin really is on the hot seat for the Giants.

Hopefully the fans will understand that in order to improve it can’t always be an instant transition. The offense is clicking. The younger players are developing. It is crucial the Giants have another good draft to improve the battle up front on both sides of the ball. General manager Jerry Reese‘s future hangs on the success of the 2015 season as well. As free agency unfolds, the Giants’ draft needs will be more evident.

The Manning-Coughlin era for the Giants has been a great one, as fans have seen nothing but professionalism and class out of these two hard working individuals. Somewhat fittingly, they both will be free agents at the conclusion of the 2015 season. How will these two leaders impact the team with their backs against the wall? They’ve done great things in the past, but there’s more pressure next season than there’s been in a long time for the Giants.

Coughlin concluded at the Giants press conference that, “We must be determined to be even stronger from this situation and don’t be accepting of where we are because it wasn’t where we want to be.” Coughlin is 13th all time in NFL history with 164 career wins. When asked how long he’d be coaching, he responded, “Probably 10 or 12 more years… I’m just being facetious, probably eight or nine.”

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