NOVEMBER 17: The Giants aren’t making any changes to their coaching staff this week, Kafka told reporters (via Jordan Raanan of ESPN). Bowen will remain the team’s defensive coordinator. “Status quo,” Kafka said of his staff.
NOVEMBER 16: Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen has been on the hot seat for some time, and Sunday’s loss to the Packers may have been the final straw. Connor Hughes of SNY.tv says the “odds are” that Bowen will be fired in short order.
Bowen worked under Mike Vrabel as the Titans’ defensive coordinator from 2021-23. When Tennessee cleaned house at the end of the 2023 slate, Bowen joined the Giants’ staff, though his first year on the job did not go especially well; Big Blue finished in the bottom-10 in terms of total defense and just outside the bottom-10 in terms of points allowed in 2024.
Nonetheless, the Giants retained head coach Brian Daboll and his top lieutenants, Bowen and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, this offseason. Of course, Daboll was fired just last week, and Kafka was elevated to interim HC.
According to Hughes, the only reason Bowen was not axed at the same time as Daboll is because the team did not want to put Kafka at a disadvantage. Instead, the Giants wanted him to spend a full week at the controls, attend defensive meetings – which is something he naturally had not done in his capacity as OC – and draw his own conclusions about the current staff.
After Sunday’s defeat, which marked the fourth time this season the 2-9 Giants have squandered a lead in the fourth quarter, Kafka certainly did not give Bowen a vote of confidence.
“We’ll evaluate everything,” Kafka succinctly stated (via Hughes).
In addition to the fourth quarter collapses, New York has allowed the fourth-most yards per game (383.0), and the club is 28th in points allowed (27.3 points per game). As such, a Bowen ouster would not be surprising.
Kafka has been linked to outside head coaching interest in the past, so while the Giants will not be vying for a playoff spot this year, their performance will impact Kafka’s own coaching future. In addition to their interim bench boss, of course, the Giants will also consider a number of other options for the full-time HC gig this offseason.
According to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer (video link), that search – which will be spearheaded by GM Joe Schoen – will not be overly expansive. Schoen will have to determine if he prefers a candidate who will be directly responsible for quarterback Jaxson Dart’s development or if he thinks the so-called “leader of men” profile (e.g. Mike Tomlin, Dan Campbell) is more important. Either way, Glazer does not think a college coach will be under consideration.
If true, that would eliminate Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman from the Giants’ list, which contradicts a recent report naming Freeman as a viable target. Some of the names that Glazer thinks will make the cut (Mike McCarthy, Lou Anarumo, Steve Spagnuolo) have already been linked to the post, while three others (Matt Nagy, Arthur Smith, Chris Shula) had not been publicly connected to New York.
Glazer spent extra time considering Shula’s candidacy. The Rams’ defensive coordinator could be yet another member of the Sean McVay coaching tree to receive HC consideration elsewhere, and according to Glazer, McVay has worked more closely with Shula than any of his former proteges.
Shula, 39, was recently named as a “prime candidate” to land a head coaching job in the 2026 cycle.
Mike McCarthy would do wonders for Dart.
Signing a new WR room in free agency
Jakobi Meyers for #2
Christian Kirk for # 3
Greg Dortch for # 4
Fix the oline
They do need more skill players and depth on the oline, but the Oline has been much better this year which is why I’d like them to retain Carmen Bricillo. The defense needs big improvement starting with a new DC and scheme.
Spagnuolo is a no-go. Legendary defensive coordinator, failure as a head coach.
Also, the Giants don’t need a head coach who was an HC for them Cowboys,.
Spot on, Chucky.
It is still difficult to understand why they didn’t fire Bowen alongside Daboll. Pure dysfunction to fire the HC, wait a week, then fire the DC. Especially when the DC should have been fired weeks ago after the Denver collapse.
Yeah, I think that they were trying to avoid turmoil, but now they have to stick with him until the interim regime gets its legs under its feet. Someone needs to call the plays and organize the meetings, after all. They could have made an outside interim DC hire, which would be unusual, but it’s been done before. Now, by retaining Bowen, I think that they can make up their minds about Bowen, but it’d be strange to do anything before the end of the season. Who knows, though-he’s been bad, and despite the spots of talent here and there, the roster appears set for at least a partial overhaul.
Of course, the roster won’t completely change as long as Schoen is there with his acquisitions, but if he goes, things could change. It sort of makes me think that the Giants will indeed go offense with their coach-if they hire a defensive guy, he may very well get rid of or devalue the defensive players for his favored players, and most of Schoen’s remaining biggest acquisitions are there. If he does that, it makes Schoen look worse as the GM, that the biggest contributors as players that he got are now being replaced. It’s the sort of thing that would encourage a team to change GMs, and at least for now, they seem to be endorsing the one they have.
Yeah, I agree. At the same time, this is like the fifth week in a row where the HC has had to address rumors of firing Bowen. The players don’t seem to respect him, and even dating way back to the Saints game, Spencer Rattler of all people called their defensive schemes too simple.
It’s weird. I honestly think they’re waiting until the bye week to fire him for some reason. Giants bizarrely don’t have a bye until week 14. imo, if their bye week had been this week or any of the previous couple of weeks, they would have fired him. It just makes no sense to keep trotting this garbage out there every week. Hand the keys to Jeff Burris or Bryan Cox or one of their assistants with DC experience (Manuel or Patterson) and be done with it already.
Oh yeah, and after re-reading my comment, I want to clarify that I agree with you that they should have fired them both together. Now they’re going to look worse doing one after the other, and hit the defense with two major coach firings in a row. The uncertainty probably doesn’t help those guys either, waiting for the other shoe to fall. They should have fired both, but now that they haven’t, they probably should wait to finish the year…barring a new major negative development.
Love had to come back in the game. Once Willis had the TD pass, Love knew he had to tough it up or the press would create a controversy. Willis has value for this team.
has nothing to do with Giants replacing their DC
Who cares about Bowen? I mentioned this game.
the article is about Bowen, not the packer’s QB situation
The article also mentioned the GAME, or did you not read that part? “and sunday’s loss to the Packers may have been the last straw”. I brought up this game …
that was incidental to the topic at hand. Mentioning the game doesn’t mean it was about the game, and you know that
Hire Belichick as the new GM
Hire Eli Manning as the new HC
Hire Rex Ryan as the new DC
Do a renovation of the Met Life field so players won’t have to make excuses to avoid playing on it.
Join the 21st century and get a team mascot and cheerleaders.
Seems like you are the one that needs to get with modern times
Well I already have a clock that goes Tik Tok 🙂
Ke$ha fanboy cooks up retro scheme that is D.O.A.
I thought it was humorous. Perhaps we’ll see if the linemen can lift Rex off the field after they inevitably win the Super Bowl.
The entire staff only weighs 12 pounds if you don’t have to lift their egos 🙂