What They’re Saying About Ben McAdoo


Ben McAdoo. (USA Today Sports)

Ben McAdoo. (USA Today Sports)

With the Eagles interviewing Ben McAdoo today, we searched the web for some articles that will help you get familiar with the Giants offensive coordinator.

The Eagles may battle the Giants for McAdoo, whom Paul Schwartz of the New York Post says is similar to Andy Reid.

If the Giants go the coordinator route — as opposed to Marrone — it would be difficult to see them going with someone other than McAdoo. He has been likened to a young Andy Reid. Both spent five years coaching tight ends for the Packers before switching to work with quarterbacks. Both are relatively low-profile and outwardly reserved. Reid was 40 when he was hired in 1999 as head coach of the Eagles. McAdoo is 38.

“Some guys it’s too big for them,’’ said a source with ties to McAdoo. “It’s never in any step of the way been too big for him. He’s come up almost the exact Andy Reid clone image. He is gonna become, and everyone knows it, a head coach. Is he a year early? Well, maybe. But if you don’t get him, he’s gonna be one next year, I promise you.’’

Eli Manning talked up McAdoo’s coaching credentials, according to Schwartz.

McAdoo completely changed Manning’s footwork, where his eyes take him while scanning the field for open receivers and how to “hunt’’ for completions. After a rough start in 2014, Manning gradually learned McAdoo’s West Coast system. This season was one of his finest showings, with a career-high passer rating of 93.6 fueled by 35 touchdown passes and only 14 interceptions.

“Great respect for coach McAdoo and the whole offensive staff,’’ Manning said. “I think we’ve done good things and I feel very comfortable, I think we work well. Last year it was tough. It was a lot going on and very new and trying to learn, but I bought into it because I trusted him, trusted the offensive staff and felt great this year about what we were able to do offensively, scored a lot of points, moved the ball well, and have great respect for all of our coaches.’’

USA Today Sports’ Jarrett Bell says McAdoo is a good head coaching candidate.

Sure, McAdoo is associated with the Giants failure to a degree. But his top 10-ranked unit can’t be blamed for the collapse of the league’s worst-ranked defense, or the game-management mishaps that too often doomed New York.

Keeping the continuity of that McAdoo’s system – and building around that scheme – needs to count for a lot about now. And it may be now or never to hand the reins over to McAdoo as Coughlin’s successor.

McAdoo’s name is on the rather expansive list of candidates lined to the Philadelphia Eagles’ in the search to replace Chip Kelly, so the risk of losing a valuable intellectual property to a division rival is staring the Giants’ brain trust square in the face.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Dan Scifo provided some background on how McAdoo ended up as a tight ends coach in Green Bay back in 2006.

Becoming a coach in the National Football League was a career goal Homer City native Ben McAdoo never considered in college.

But, one year spent away from coaching the game he loves changed everything, and left him longing for the gridiron.

“I spent a year away from coaching, and I was miserable,” McAdoo said. “I didn’t realize how badly I wanted it until I took the year off.”

NJ.com’s James Kratch, Jordan Raanan and Joe Giglio debated McAdoo’s coaching candidacy on their podcast (starting at around 17:00).

“When you talk to guys in that lockerroom, they all respect Ben McAdoo. They think he’s a good guy; he has a great presence to him. When he stands up and talks, people listen. You don’t look at Ben McAdoo like he’s a 38-year-old contemporary. He carries himself very, very well.

The way I like to describe it is he’s Tom Coughlin. … He’s all business, he’s all serious. He’s just very — almost militaristic.”

Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News also thinks the Giants should hire McAdoo.

The upside to hiring McAdoo is obvious. Manning loves him. There’d be continuity on an offense that ranked eighth in the NFL this season (up from 10th in McAdoo’s first year). He’d likely keep most of the Giants’ coaching staff together, including defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo — a Mara favorite. And the in-house hire would provide Mara some of the stability he’s craved.

The downside is that McAdoo has never been a head coach. It’s also a tough sell to promote an assistant from a team that finished 6-10 in each of the last two seasons, especially since by all accounts ownership was ready to push the head coach out the door.