The Giants changed offensive coordinators this offseason, marking the most significant change to the unit run by quarterback Eli Manning since he entered the league in 2004.
One might think that the prospect of changing the way an offense does business with a veteran quarterback coming off his worst season (and offseason ankle surgery) is a recipe for a bad outcome, but coach Tom Coughlin doesn’t see things that way. Coughlin told Kimberley Jones of NFL Network that he believes forcing Manning to study and learn a new offense will bring a return to the kind of play that the team got from him while winning a pair of Super Bowls.
“There’s no question in my mind about that,” Coughlin said. “As a matter of fact, this studying part, it’s a good thing. It is a good thing. And that’s really what I wanted to go ahead and put in place, where the wheels for the veteran players, the wheels were really turning and so that was part of the objective.”
You wouldn’t expect to hear Coughlin to say anything different because it is hard to imagine that he’d still be coaching if the entire organization didn’t believe that sticking with what’s worked in the past was the best way to win again in the future. That confidence is balanced by the new faces around Manning in a new offense that could take some time to click at the level the Giants will need to return to the playoffs.