The New York Giants have gone through four head coaches since parting ways with franchise legend Tom Coughlin in 2015. As the franchise continues to seek long-term sustainability, there was apparently one scenario that could’ve dramatically altered the Giants’ future.
In 2017, the Giants’ organization fired head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese. The much-needed changes led to a prolonged Giants coaching search. Ultimately, New York hired Pat Shurmur as its new head coach and named Dave Gettleman as general manager.
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The coach-GM pairing was a disaster. Near the end of the 2022 season after Shurmur was gone and his replacement Joe Judge was also fired, the Giants parted ways with Gettleman. While their replacements have fared reasonably well, things could’ve gone very differently for the franchise.
During an appearance on This Is Football with Kevin Clark, ESPN’s NFL analyst Louis Riddick shared some insight into his 2017 candidacy for the Giants’ general manager vacancy and what he was planning to do if he got the job.
“When I was interviewing to be the GM of the New York Giants, and I thought I was damn close to getting it, I called Nick and I asked him ‘Would you come back to pro football and coach?’ He said, “Just get the job first, we’ll talk’ That was going to be the guy who I told Giants ownership, you guys do everything you can to get him back to pro football…Considering the fact that he told me “just get the job, then we’ll talk”, he didn’t say no.”
Louis Riddick on interviewing for the New York Giants’ GM vacancy, wanting to hire Nick Saban
Riddick had the relationship with Saban to try and lure him away from the Alabama Crimson Tide. Furthermore, he would’ve been joining the franchise when they had an opportunity to replace quarterback Eli Manning with someone like Josh Allen in the 2018 NFL Draft.
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Instead, Saban won more national championships with Alabama and the Giants haven’t reached the NFC Championship Game in over a decade. Based on the direction the Giants franchise is headed, it’s very possible they are searching for a new head coach and general manager in 2025.