The New York Giants’ gradual decline over the past decade can be attributed to many things. Poor planning, shoddy leadership, bad luck — you name it, they’ve had it.
In a recent Bleacher Report article outlining each team’s “scapegoat” of the 2010s, the writer chose ill-fated head coach Ben McAdoo as the Giants’ candidate.
You can make a good case for that, but there is a lot more a play here.
Following the 2011 season, the New York Giants were Super Bowl champions. Over the past three seasons, they’ve won a combined 12 games. Former head coach Ben McAdoo played a large role in the franchise’s decline.
Was McAdoo entirely responsible? Of course not. The Giants moved on from Super Bowl-winning coach Tom Coughlin because he failed to make the playoffs for four straight seasons. New York reached the playoffs in McAdoo’s first season but collapsed in his second.
McAdoo coached the Giants to a 2-10 record before being fired in 2017. Along the way, he benched longtime starting quarterback Eli Manning—in a thinly veiled attempt to spark change and save his job.
You can blame McAdoo if you want, but he didn’t hire himself nor did he surround himself with the players he had to work with. John Mara should have replaced Jerry Reese as general manager at least two years before he did. That would have sent Reese’s personnel guru Marc Ross packing as well.
That group allowed the Giants to get away from what made them champions — solid offensive and defensive line play — instead of focusing on skill players and whiffing on several of those.
Reese and Ross also failed to bring in linebackers through the draft, never spending any Day 1 or 2 selections on the position during the decade.
In the end, McAdoo was the scapegoat and he did deserve some of the blame, but he didn’t create the mess the Giants still find themselves in.
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