From 11-5 To Unemployment

The question is no longer whether Ben McAdoo will be the Giants’ head coach come January. Only a stunning turnaround by his football team, as stunning as the Giants compiling one win through mid-November, will save McAdoo’s job.

The question, at least one of the big questions, is how the Giants went 11-5 in McAdoo’s rookie season as head coach last year. How did they so dramatically digress from a team that, while likely not enamored with the joyless coach, played hard for him in 2016?

The Giants’ freefall helps explain the fragile nature of the sport, the league and the egos that fill stadiums all by themselves. Sure the Giants had an abundance of injuries, probably more than most, but injuries can’t be solely measured in missed games. It’s a difficult category to gauge in a league filled with hurting players of varying pain thresholds, some of whom compete, thrive even, on anything outside a torn ACL while others miss time with minor sprains.

As such, McAdoo can’t take the injury excuse to the unemployment line. Unless it’s your star quarterback on the sideline, injuries are simply an issue every team must deal with in some form while showing off, or exploiting, the depth of the roster. What a bunch of injuries usually do is reveal the work of the general manager, in this case Jerry Reese, in putting together the roster.