Giants May Explore Trading For Next Head Coach

We’ve seen some recent rumors concerning the Giants’ open head coaching job following their dismissal of Brian Daboll. Some rumors have focused on names from the collegiate ranks like Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman, who was identified as an emerging candidate or North Carolina’s Bill Belichick, who declined to pursue the job. Other reports focused on the decision to target a quarterback whisperer versus a so-called “leader of men” type, in the mold of a Mike Tomlin or a Dan Campbell.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, though, New York hasn’t yet ruled out a fairly unorthodox method for finding their new coach. While the team is sure to explore the options available at the college level and the NFL’s coordinators and assistant coaches who deserve a chance at more responsibility, the Giants are reportedly open to entertaining the idea of trading for current head coach.

NFL trades including head coaches are extremely rare but not unheard of. In the history of the league, there has only ever been two true trades in which offers were made before things were finalized in some form or fashion. Six other transactions have taken place that were essentially trades, though they didn’t start out that way.

Before the concept of trading for a head coach was an established idea, there were still coaches who wanted to terminate their existing contract in favor of greener pastures. The first such example saw former Baltimore Colts head coach Don Shula leave the franchise to accept a perk-filled offer to coach the Dolphins. Baltimore accused Miami of tampering, and then-commissioner Pete Rozelle decided that the Dolphins would send a 1971 first-round pick to the Colts to make up for the years that had remained on Shula’s contract when he left.

Similar such transactions occurred a few times since wherein head coaches would either resign or retire with time remaining on their contract before ultimately choosing to coach elsewhere. The happened twice between the Jets and Patriots with Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick both serving as the main pieces in those “trades.” The Seahawks poached Mike Holmgren from Green Bay in the ’90s, and we’ve recently seen examples with Bruce Arians and Sean Payton, who both took a year away from the NFL before taking new jobs that required an additional exchange of draft compensation for their former teams.

The two true trades saw Jon Gruden shipped from Oakland to Tampa Bay in exchange for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and $8MM in cash and Herm Edwards shipped from the Jets to the Chiefs for a fourth-round pick. Because there aren’t any free agent coaches currently who walked away from remaining contract years, it appears this would be the route New York would need to pursue.

This method would require the Giants to reach out to the front office of any coaches they may be interested in to determine if any interest in a deal is mutual. From there, the two teams would work out what they agree is sufficient compensation, but before sealing the deal, the coach would get a chance to veto. We saw the first part of this occur last year, when rumors were reported that the Bears were interested in acquiring 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, and in 2014, we saw the second part, when then-49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh nixed a deal that would’ve sent him to Cleveland.

It’s not the likeliest method for how the Giants are expected to find Daboll’s replacement, but it’s certainly interesting that they’re not turning it down as a possibility. And if New York has a chance to pair a coach currently under contract with their litany of young, drafted standouts on both sides of the ball, it wouldn’t be out of bounds for them to use some of that draft capital to bring in a standout head coach, as well.