The first major shoe has dropped in the NFL coaching carousel to come. After yet another disappointing outing in Week 12 that saw the New York Giants embarrassed at the hands of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team has opted to part ways with their offensive coordinator — firing Jason Garrett on Tuesday, the Giants confirmed.
It’s a move many thought was on the horizon after hearing the post-game comments from head coach Joe Judge, wherein Judge lambasted the Giants coaching staff as a whole and refused to comment on the future of Garrett. It also appears this was long in the making, with additional reports suggesting Judge had relieved Garrett of play-calling duties prior to this past weekend, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network — a demotion that’s seen him go from being a head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, to offensive coordinator for the Giants before being moved to a role as a positional coach and now a free agent.
But despite the failures Garrett has experienced, his name will instantly be mentioned as a top candidate for vacancies around the league in 2022, and that includes the Las Vegas Raiders — as one example. For the Giants, the question now becomes who’ll take the reins in calling the plays, because whomever did it in Tampa on Thursday night didn’t exactly do a bang up job, either.
It does open the door for Freddie Kitchens, currently serving as a senior offensive assistant in New York, to slide into the role. In 2018, Kitchens served as interim offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns before being awarded the role full-time. He then went on to become head coach of the Browns, albeit to disastrous results, before joining the Giants as tight ends coach in 2020 — the same year Garrett rejoined the organization as a part of Judge’s incoming staff.
It’s something the Giants will need to figure out expeditiously, considering there are still seven games remaining in the regular season, assuming they aren’t waving the white flag on the season. It’s a safe assumption Judge is doing anything but that, because it’s not as if he nor general manager Dave Gettleman are currently safe from the looming wrath of owner John Mara.
For Garrett, it’ll be about regrouping for what will eventually be the third tectonic shift in his coaching career in as many seasons, having parted ways with the Cowboys following the 2019 season for an incoming Mike McCarthy — after a decade as head coach and decades (plural) in the organization (stemming back to his days as Troy Aikman’s backup) — hoping for better luck with an equally familiar Giants organization but a wholly unfamiliar Judge.
As noted above, there is already one NFL team looking for a permanent head coach and Rich Bissacia, the current interim who spent several seasons under Garrett in Dallas, has seen his luster wear off fairly quickly. Garrett might also garner interest in the collegiate ranks, something that seems a foregone conclusion, and it’ll be up to him to decide if he wants to try his hand again at the pro level in 2022, or if he’d like to use his ability to motivate players to help push a collegiate program forward.
That is also to-be-determined, a theme that now defines another disappointing season for all involved.
