The Giants took a step toward fixing what team owner John Mara termed their “broken’’ offense when they interviewed Mike Sullivan for the vacant offensive coordinator job on Wednesday.
Sullivan is believed to be the leader in the clubhouse based on the fact he has already worked with the Giants, and has the support of a handful of players, including wide receiver Victor Cruz.
“I would like Sullivan, obviously I am biased because he was a guy that was with us when we won a Super Bowl and a guy that’s instrumental in being in my corner when I was a rookie in the league and a free agent and things like that,’’ Cruz said at a promotional event in Manhattan. “But he’s definitely a guy who knows us, who knows our personnel, who knows probably 80 percent of the guys on the team right now and it’d be something that I’d like to see happen.”
Sullivan is not the only candidate, however. Dowell Loggains, the Titans’ recently fired offensive coordinator, is scheduled to interview with the Giants on Thursday, according to a league source, and Packers quarterbacks coach Ben McAdoo is scheduled to interview on Saturday.
The 33-year-old Loggains is also believed to be candidate for the Lions’ offensive coordinator job, especially if former Titans head coach Mike Munchak is hired as the next head coach in Detroit. Loggains is relatively inexperienced, having not taken over as the Titans’ offensive coordinator until late in the 2012 season when Chris Palmer (the former Giants quarterbacks coach) was fired.
Last season was his first full season as an offensive coordinator and the Titans’ offense ranked 22nd in the league.
Sullivan, 46, was an assistant under Greg Schiano in Tampa Bay from 2012 through this season, when Schiano and his staff were fired. The Bucs offense was last in the NFL in 2013, but in 2012 it was ranked ninth. The Giants’ offense was ranked 28th in 2013.
Sullivan was a quality control assistant on Tom Coughlin’s staff with the Jaguars, then was the Giants receivers coach when they won Super Bowl XLII in 2008 and was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2010, working in that capacity through the Giants’ Super Bowl XLVI victory following the 2011 season.
So there is a significant familiarity factor with Giants players, most importantly quarterback Eli Manning and the receivers, something that could make the transition smoother.
“We obviously think very highly of him,” Mara said of Sullivan last week.
So, too, does Cruz.
“The front office of the Giants have their own decisions to make and they do a pretty good job of that,” Cruz said, “so I’m fully trusting them that they’ll make the right decision and we’ll go from there.”
The Buccaneers have requested the Giants’ permission to interview Marc Ross, their director of player evaluation, for their vacant general manager job.