Could the Giants benefit from a year with few coaching vacancies?

Could the New York Giants benefit from the limited number of head coach openings this offseason?

Since the New York Giants fired Pat Shurmur early on Monday morning, there have an abundance of rumors about who might replace him in 2020.

Shurmur was one of just two head coaches to be let go following the end of the season on Sunday. There were also two coaches who were fired during the season — Ron Rivera (Carolina Panthers) and Jay Gruden (Washington Redskins).

Coincidentally, the Giants and Ron Rivera seemed like a perfect match given Rivera’s connection to Dave Gettleman. Whether or not the Giants were going to target Rivera will remain a mystery as the division rival Redskins have already locked up Rivera to be their next head coach.

With Rivera occupying one of the four current vacancies, the Giants can be patient in their search as they only have two other teams to compete with.

With the Cleveland Browns also parting ways with their general manager, John Dorsey, it may be likely they fill the GM spot before they fill their head coaching opening.

Of course, the Giants could have some more competition soon within their division as many have expected for the Dallas Cowboys to announce they were moving on from Jason Garrett, although it is surprising that the news still has not been announced.

The Giants have been connected to names like Matt Rhule, Josh McDaniels, Mike McCarthy, Don Martindale, Eric Bieniemy and could target many more.

In recent memory, there have been at least seven or more coaching vacancies headed into the offseason. In fact, when Big Blue hired their last two head coaches (Ben McAdoo in 2016, Pat Shurmur in 2018) there were seven vacancies around the league.

This year, it seems the Giants have the luxury of not having as much forced urgency than they would in recent years given the other vacancies they are competing with. In a year with so few coaching openings and hopefully the Giants can benefit from that as they begin their search.

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