Ben McAdoo has never, ever called a play, not a single one, in the National Football League. He never has designed his own offense. Never been employed for a day as an offensive coordinator, not in high school or college or the NFL.
Anyone who says they know for sure what system McAdoo will install with the Giants is guessing, surmising based on his background, or found a way to link directly into his brainwaves.
There’s nothing to be read into McAdoo’s one comment thus far about his new gig: “We’re going to be an up-tempo, attacking-style offense. We’re going to play with good energy. And we’re going to rely on fundamentals.”
That’s coach-speak. That’s what they all say. Go find a newly hired offensive coordinator who says, “We’re going to be a sluggish, grind-it-out offense. We’re going to play sort of fast but not too fast, and we’re not going to harp on being fundamentally sound.’’ These guys all say they want to be up-tempo and attacking. Let’s see what happens the first time the offensive line breaks down and there’s a jail-break coming for Eli Manning.
What’s clear is Manning is in for a major adjustment, because everything in McAdoo’s resume suggests he’s going to install some version of the West Coast offense — meaning the throw-it-down-the-field approach of the past is going to be replaced for more timed, intermediate, precision passing, which never has been Manning’s strong suit.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy is McAdoo’s greatest influence, a branch on McCarthy’s coaching tree. McCarthy was influenced by Marty Schottenheimer and Paul Hackett, and also by Andy Reid, who was influenced by Mike Holmgren, who was influenced by the late Bill Walsh. Notice a trend here?
”I don’t look at it as having a tree,’’ McCarthy told The Post. “Ben McAdoo is someone, we’ve both benefitted from our relationship.’’
Now the relationship parts ways professionally, and the McAdoo-Tom Coughlin seed is planted.
Look for the Giants to use far more three-receiver packages, because that’s the foundation of McAdoo’s football education. The Packers in 2013 went with a three-receiver, one-tight end set 67.3 percent of the time. The Giants went with that set just 51.5 percent of the time, mainly because they needed to keep a second tight end on the field in an attempt to block and keep Manning on his feet.
McAdoo is 36 and sports a goatee — bet Coughlin 10 years ago wouldn’t have hired him with that facial hair — and has yet to prove he can lead an entire offense. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was skeptical when McAdoo moved up to coach the quarterbacks in Green Bay, but he was won over by the young assistant, noting that McAdoo got in front of the entire offense to install the red-zone package.
“Every week he got more comfortable,’’ Rodgers said last week. “He put more into his presentation. More of his personality came out. There were jokes. There was an ability to control the room.’’
He’s young and on the rise, but McAdoo is not what former Giants general manager George Young used to call a “silver-spooner’’ — guy who had everything handed to him. He grew up in Homer City, Pa. — where his father and all six of his father’s brothers were coal miners; where his grandfather, also a coal miner, died of black lung disease.
Ben McAdoo figured he also would become a coal miner. He became the first member of his family to attend college — Indiana University of Pennsylvania, seven miles from his hometown. He never played football after high school. And now he’s about to bring big, big changes to Eli Manning & Co.