John Mara called what just transpired “a very disappointing season, as disappointing as any in my memory’’ and, while expressing full confidence in general manager Jerry Reese and stating Tom Coughlin is coming back as head coach, Mara vowed big changes are coming.
“I think our fans deserve better,” the Giants co-owner said Monday, the day after his team completed a 7-9 season. “We’ll do everything we have to do to improve.”
Mara clearly and repeatedly pointed to the failures of an offense that were the main culprit in the Giants missing out on the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.
“I think our offense is broken right now and we need to fix that, and we need to make some improvements on defense, too,” Mara said. “But, obviously, the offensive side of the ball, we’ve got to improve there and we can’t go into next season with the same personnel.”
That does not bode well for Kevin Gilbride, the longtime offensive coordinator who might not survive the organizational meetings Mara said will take place later this week.
Mara conceded Eli Manning “did not have a good year,” but stressed “I still have every confidence in him. He’s still the face of the franchise and we need to help him, we need to give him some better tools and do a better job around him next year.”
Mara did not mention Gilbride by name, but he did question the offensive approach in terms of one specific player, receiver Jerrel Jernigan, who came on strong the last few games subbing for injured Victor Cruz.
“I’m not sure why it took us three years to find out Jerrel Jernigan can play,” Mara said. “Sometimes you have to put young players in the game and give them a chance to fail … or succeed. It would’ve been nice if he’d gotten in a little earlier. But that’s not my decision.”
The receivers coach for the Giants is Kevin M. Gilbride, the son of the offensive coordinator. Quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan will also be among those heavily evaluated to discover why the Giants finished with the NFL’s 28th-ranked offense.
Coughlin said, “I have great confidence in this group of men that we’ve had here as a coaching staff, and I believe in them very strongly” but he seemed resigned some changes are forthcoming.
“I’m not going to answer until we talk to the coach,” Reese said of staff changes. “That’s disrespectful to some people who have been here for a long time and helped us win a lot of football games.”
One name to consider as a possible replacement at offensive coordinator if Gilbride is dismissed: Mike Sullivan. The former Giants receivers and quarterbacks coach was the offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers, but on Monday Bucs head coach Greg Schiano was fired. Sullivan and Coughlin are close.
“We obviously think very highly of him,” Mara said of Sullivan, “but that has yet to be discussed.”
Coughlin did not address a question about his future after Sunday’s 20-6 victory over the Redskins, but on Monday he stated “I do want to coach.” He turns 68 next August but said, “I got into this a little bit later than most. I’m just a young guy in this business.”
Mara said he informed Coughlin on Monday morning “that we do want him back as our head coach, we still have every confidence in him.” Coughlin has one year remaining on his deal, and in the past the Giants have not let their head coaches enter the final year of their contract.
“That has been our philosophy in years past, there’s no secret about that,” Mara said. “Whether it continues or not has yet to be decided.”
Mara said “nobody had a good year,” pointing to the roster and the talent added from the NFL draft as areas that need to be improved.
“Certainly personnel wise we over-evaluated certain people,” Mara said. “We have not gotten production out of certain draft slots.”
As for Reese, Mara said, “I totally believe he is the right guy. I am convinced he is the right guy to lead us forward.”
Reese back in the summer famously stated “Everyone is on notice” for this season and then his team finished with a losing record.
“Well, you know, 7-9 sucks,’’ Reese said. “Yeah, it’s hard to swallow. It sucks being 7-9, we don’t want to be 7-9.”