Paul Schwartz

Paul Schwartz

NFL

McAdoo hire one of high risk but high reward for Giants

No one should be even a little surprised coach Tom Coughlin, despite nearing the end of his coaching run, can embrace change this late in his career. Make no mistake, bringing in a young coach from a different team with no ties to the Giants and handing him the keys to the offense represents about as big a change as there can be to the system.

The arrival of Ben McAdoo from the Packers as the new offensive coordinator is a dramatic step for Coughlin, who never has worked with McAdoo. It’s bold and daring, but it’s not shocking. After all, it’s not even close to the most daunting change he has had to make in order to remain the head coach.

Lest we forget, following the 2006 season, Coughlin was, if not on the ropes, certainly a bit wobbly as far as job security. He was told — not suggested, told — to stop being such a curmudgeon, stop being the most disliked person in the room, stop being someone players respected but didn’t trust with their emotional attachment, stop being such a bully with the media. Coughlin, a survivalist, evolved and two Super Bowl titles later his bond with his players is so strong he could actually be accused of being too close and loyal to them, at times.

If Coughlin could accept and then deliver with a personal makeover, giving up the reins of his offense to an outsider was a natural next step to fix what co-owner John Mara pointedly called a “broken’’ offense. You don’t tweak a broken offense, you wipe it clean and start from scratch. If minor alterations were needed, the Giants would have gone with Mike Sullivan, their former receivers and quarterbacks coach who spent two years running the Buccaneers’ offense. He was the safe choice with a nod toward continuity. But the Giants don’t merely need a few upgrades, they need an overhaul. The entire playbook left behind by Kevin Gilbride won’t be torn apart, but Coughlin immediately laid down the law that what the players wanted — carryover — is not what they got.

“We’re going to try to compromise the system with what we have here,’’ Coughlin stated. “However, there will be change. And that change will be very positive and very well-received by our team and our players. And if our players are scrambling around to learn a new system — good. That’s another fire in their rear end.”

Down the stretch of his worst season, Eli Manning told The Post he was comfortable with the offense and that comfortable was a good thing. Well, Eli, you just got mighty uncomfortable and this will be perhaps his greatest professional challenge: mastering new plays, new terminology, a new voice in his ear, all this 10 years into his career at the age of 33. Smartly, the Giants last week hooked up Manning with McAdoo for a chat, but this is an organization where the inmates do not run the asylum. Manning was given the opportunity to get to know McAdoo a little bit but wasn’t asked to endorse him.

McAdoo is just 36, not much older than the quarterback he has been entrusted to nudge back onto the right path. Though he has never been an offensive coordinator nor called plays at any level, McAdoo arrives with the endorsement of Packers star quarterback Aaron Rodgers and a reputation as a smart, even-keeled up-and-comer. He calls this “a golden opportunity,’’ and if McAdoo succeeds, he could be line to be Coughlin’s successor. That’s getting ahead of the situation, but heck, high risk often leads to high rewards.