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Coaching Jaxson Dart would be fun for most anyone the Giants are interested in hiring.
There are some who feel the New York Giants head-coaching vacancy is not a sexy job. But Mike McCarthy pretty clearly isn’t one of them.
The Super Bowl-winning coach with the Green Bay Packers, who led the Dallas Cowboys to the playoffs in three of his five seasons, raved about the Giants and especially quarterback Jaxson Dart during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.
The Giants are 2-11 and were the first team eliminated from the playoffs this year — missing the postseason for the 12th time in the past 14 seasons. They fired first-time head coach Brian Daboll on Nov. 10, after Dart sustained a concussion in their 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears.
Mike McCarthy Is Infatuated With Jaxson Dart
The Giants were mocked for trading back into the first round to select Jaxson Dart with the 25th-overall pick in this spring’s draft. But Dart has quieted the naysayers with his attitude, toughness and prowess, both as a passer and a runner.
“I love the way he plays,” McCarthy said on the show Thursday. “What Jaxson Dart does naturally you can’t teach.
“His ability to make plays with his feet is phenomenal, and I think he has an extremely bright future.”
But McCarthy especially raved about Dart’s prowess running the ball and invited Giants fans to exercise caution with his in-pocket decision making, which he called “the real challenge for [quarterbacks] in the National Football League.”
Still, McCarthy effectively put himself on the list of men who would like to coach him — though he feels it could be a long list. He also was advocating for Dart to be more careful when he tucks it and run, to remain on the field for the Giants.
“I think every quarterback coach in the United States would love to coach this guy, just the way he plays,” McCarthy said. “He’s just gotta be conscious of his availability.”
The Giants Could Definitely Do Worse Than Mike McCarthy As Their Next Coach
Giants fans may roll their eyes at the notion of McCarthy being the next coach. He’s boring and not a risk taker. He doesn’t seem to follow analytics the way more modern coaches do and has definitely failed in the playoffs.
But the Giants have fallen into a pit and can’t seem to get out of it. They’ve won one playoff game since Super Bowl XLVI — which was 14 years ago — and have the NFL’s second-worst winning percentage over the past decade.
New York has dropped seven straight games and has been forced to discipline 2025 first-round pick Abdul Carter in consecutive games, as well. So it is in the market for a culture-changing coach and ideally one that has previous head coaching experience.
The Giants — who had the league’s hardest schedule, lost star wideout Malik Nabers in Week 4 and RB1 Cam Skattebo in Week 8 and are 1-5 in one-score games with two OT losses — are much more talented than their record indicates. So maybe a coach with regular-season prowess like McCarthy can help fix some of that quickly.
Plus, McCarthy can survive the New York media, since he worked for Jerry Jones and thrived. McCarthy went 49-35 in Dallas and twice won the NFC East, even amid the ongoing circus that Jones invites into their facility.
Absent a Bill Belichick-like hire, which opens a whole different set of challenges, McCarthy may actually be the best fit to lead the Giants out of the decade-long doldrums they have battled.
Pat Pickens is an experienced sports writer and media personality who has written for outlets like NHL.com, the Associated Press, the New York Times and USA Today. He covers the NFL, NBA, NHL and NBA as a breaking news contributor at Heavy. More about Pat Pickens
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