Surely the Giants can’t be serious.
Or maybe they are serious. And don’t call them Shirley.
Airplane seating apparently was the final straw that led to the firing of assistant defensive line coach Bryan Cox during the team’s bye week.
“You’d have to ask him,” head coach Mike Kafka said Wednesday of Cox.
The Giants’ assistant coaches typically sit near the front of the team’s plane on road trips, but on the flight home from the Giants’ blowout loss in New England, the assistants were moved to the back of the flight instead, per the Athletic.
And Cox’s reaction to that change, although the details are still murky, ultimately became his last strike. There is clearly more to this story that will continue to trickle out in due time.
“I’m not going to get into the weeds and the details of everything there,” Kafka said.
Cox is the third coach fired in the past month, following head coach Brian Daboll (Nov. 10) and defensive coordinator Shane Bowen (Nov. 24) out the door.
The fact that defensive line coach Andre Patterson is still working for the team, while Cox has been fired, reinforces that the decision was about something other than football. Otherwise, Patterson would have been axed too for spearheading the worst run defense in the NFL.
The Giants rank dead last among the league’s 32 defenses in rush yards per game allowed (154.2) and yards per carry allowed (5.8). And the 6.2 yards per carry they were allowing on designed runs entering their blowout loss at New England was the worst mark in the history of NFL Next Gen Stats, which started tracking in 2016.
Coincidence or not, Cox also was fired the same week that pupil Jordon Riley, a 2023 Joe Schoen seventh-round pick, was poached off the Giants’ practice squad by the Green Bay Packers. Riley had not played a regular season snap this fall.
On top of the Cox distraction, it was also pointed out to Kafka by ESPN before Wednesday’s practice that there has been pushback on the defensive coaching staff to the organization’s decision to make outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen the interim defensive coordinator.
It would be understandable for coaches to feel that way considering one of the players in Bullen’s position room, rookie Abdul Carter, has been habitually late, missed a meeting and gotten benched twice in the past three weeks.
Bullen once worked with Schoen on the Miami Dolphins, so he had the right people in his corner at the right time.
It’s not like the Giants had a ton of great options there, either. None of their primary position coaches have gotten their players to play anywhere close to good enough on defense this season.
And every week that passes, that coaching staff gets smaller and smaller as the Giants’ dysfunction persists in the wake left by Brian Daboll’s mess of a tenure with Schoen at the helm.
NO JAYDEN ON SUNDAY
The Washington Commanders are sitting franchise quarterback Jayden Daniels on Sunday after he failed to make it through last week’s 31-0 road loss in Minnesota due to his dislocated left elbow. So veteran backup Marcus Mariota will start against the Giants.
Washington (3-10) has lost eight straight games. The Giants (2-11) have lost seven in a row. The Commanders beat the Giants with Daniels at quarterback, 21-6, when Russell Wilson started the Giants’ Week 1 season opener at Washington.
Mariota has a 1-5 record with two overtime losses in six starts this season. The Giants and Washington are two of the eight NFL teams with two or three wins vying for the top picks in next April’s NFL Draft.
A NEW PUNTER, KAYVON STILL ON SIDE
The Giants signed three new players to their practice squad: returner Xavier Gipson, punter Cameron Johnston and defensive lineman Casey Rogers. Gipson and Rogers both have played for the Giants before.
Johnston seems like he will be the Giants’ punter on Sunday against Washington. Jamie Gillan has “knee inflammation,” per Kafka, and has had a bad season.
The team also opened up the 21-day return window from injured reserve for four players: offensive lineman Josh Ezeudu, wide receiver Beaux Collins, linebacker Darius Muasau and corner Art Green.
Edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux (shoulder), who was targeting a post-bye return to the lineup, was still running on the side Wednesday and did not practice.
Tackle Evan Neal (hamstring), who is on injured reserve, also was seen running on the side.
