“Make sure you put me down as a reference.’’
It was a comment made in jest by Aaron Rodgers, but there’s little doubt it will resonate with the Giants when Ben McAdoo arrives Saturday to interview for the vacant offensive coordinator job. McAdoo, 36, is an intriguing candidate who will be third in line to meet with the Giants following Mike Sullivan this Wednesday and Dowell Loggains, who interviews Thursday.
Many in the NFL view McAdoo as a present-day Andy Reid, who back in 1999 was hired as the head coach of the Eagles even though he was a young and relatively little-known assistant. But he was the Packers quarterback coach and had the backing of his star pupil Brett Favre. McAdoo, 36, has followed a similar script. Like Reid, McAdoo spent time (six years) coaching tight ends in Green Bay before he was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2011 and succeeded in gaining Rodgers’ backing.
“Any opportunity he gets, he deserves,’’ Rodgers said earlier this week on his radio show. “He’s a guy that works extremely hard. We had a long talk [Monday], and I just continued to echo the things that I felt about him and appreciate about him. Ultimately I have always needed a guy who gets me prepared every week, that can give me the opportunities to reach my potential. Ben did that every day the last two seasons for me and the other quarterbacks in the room. He’s a guy who wants to learn and takes to heart the things I say or the things he hears from Tom [Clements, the Packers offensive coordinator] and tried to become a better quarterbacks coach every day. And he did.”
McAdoo is in demand. He interviewed on Wednesday for the Browns head coaching job and he seems poised to land, at the very least, an offensive coordinator position. He has never been a coordinator at any level of coaching. He entered the NFL in 2004 as an assistant with the Saints – where he worked with Mike McCarthy. When McCarthy went to the 49ers in 2005 to run the offense, he brought McAdoo with him. When McCarthy was hired as head coach of the Packers in 2006, he brought McAdoo with him again. McAdoo’s work with the tight ends in Green Bay was well-received, and he was tested this past season when Rodgers went down with a broken collarbone and the Packers had to juggle quarterbacks.
“He’s prepared himself for opportunities that are out there,” McCarthy told reporters about McAdoo after this season ended. “I’ve seen him diligently prepare himself to move forward.”
McAdoo worked with Joe Philbin for six years with the Packers and has been mentioned as a candidate for the offensive coordinator job in Miami, where Philbin is head coach of the Dolphins and Mike Sherman was recently let go as coordinator. McAdoo has no such ties to the Giants. Any new coordinator will have as the first order of business to fix what co-owner John Mara called a “broken’’ offense, with Eli Manning coming off a career-worst season.
Sullivan, 46, was a Giants assistant for eight years — the first six as receivers coach, the last two as quarterbacks coach — and he would bring familiarity. Sullivan, the offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers the past two years before he was fired along with Greg Schiano’s entire staff, has the endorsement of Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Manning, who all have supported his return to the Giants.
Loggains, 33, is the same age as Manning and was the offensive coordinator for the Titans before he was fired along with Mike Munchak’s entire coaching staff.