E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he was one of only three sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls up until last year. Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

IN AFTERMATH OF STUNNING VICTORY OVER THE EAGLES,
GIANTS FIRE ST COACH McGAUGHEY, OL COACH JOHNSON… AND WINK SET TO RESIGN

By Aaron Klein
No rest for the weary, I guess.

Not 24 hours after the Giants' stunning win over Philadelphia on Sunday evening, change has come to East Rutherford.

After the team and media gathered at the team facilities Monday morning for a wrap-up press conference, general manager Joe Schoen announced that Special Teams Coordinator Thomas McGaughey, offensive line coach Bobby Williams, outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins and his brother, defensive assistant Kevin Wilkins, had been let go.

And just a few hours later, several reports came out that Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale would resign. It is thought that the Wilkins brothers, who both coached under Martindale in Baltimore, were let go after the team was aware that Martindale would step down.

You asked for change, you got it.

Earlier in the day, Daboll told the media that he expected both Martindale and Offensive Coordinator Mike Kafka to return in response to a question about further changes.

"My expectation is Wink and Kafka will both be back so those are two of the changes we made this morning, but there's still conversations that are going to be had," Daboll said. "We've only been here for a short time but those were two of the guys in the morning that I spoke with. Other than that, again, appreciate the way the guys finished and competed yesterday. We had an offseason meeting, leading into the offseason just a little while ago with the staff and the players and the coaches and all the administrators. It was a good year-end meeting. They're meeting now with their offense and defense, respectively, position coaches."

"I think they're good coaches, so it'll be good to have some continuity and bring them back," Daboll said. "I know Wink talks about this as a destination place and things like that, it's good. I appreciate how hard they work, their commitment to the team, so that's my plan."

As of this writing, Kafka remained a member of the Giants' coaching staff and the team had not made a formal announcement regarding Martindale's exit.

It had been rumored that Martindale and Daboll were not getting along during the season, but both coaches downplayed it, quipping that the only disagreement they had was about who would get the last slice of pizza. Apparently, someone wanted more. Reportedly, the two didn't agree on defensive strategies as well as management of defensive assistant coaches. Martindale has one year left on his contract and the Giants could block any move he might make to work for another club.

McGaghey had survived three head coaches, but the time had come to see marked change in the special teams and that never came about. Johnson, for his part, did not develop the offensive line to anyone's liking, namely Daboll. The Giants allowed 85 sacks this season, 20 more than the 31st team, Washington, but 19 short of the record, held by the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles team with 104.

"Just felt we're going to move in a different direction, not going add anything to it," Daboll said. "These were private conversations, but I do respect both of those guys and what they've done the last two years, their commitment to the team, their work ethic, but wanted to make a change."

Schoen was asked to deliver a message, if any, to the fans who saw the Giants make the playoffs in 2022, only to collapse in epic fashion this year.

"The message is, 'believe in the process,'" Schoen said. "We came in here year one and were able to go to the playoffs and win a playoff game and this year it didn't go as well as we wanted it to, for various reasons. We've all got a hand in it; we've all got to do better going into next year and we will. That's what this offseason is about. I've got a lot of faith in the staff and Dabs and our process, whether it's down in the weight room, the training staff, our draft process, free agency. I've got a lot of faith in the process, and we'll get this thing turned around."

To some, the playoffs was such a surprise that it gave all involved - the fans, the press, even the team - a false sense that the team had turned the corner and big things were in line for 2023. So much so that the Giants handed quarterback Daniel Jones a whopper of a contract (more on that in the coming weeks), while the NFL scheduled the Giants for what seemed like a prime-time game every week. In truth, the Giants had five prime time games and five late afternoon slots on their schedule. Don't expect that for next season.

Schoen was then asked to try and explain what went so wrong between 2022 and 2023. It wasn't an easy question to answer.

"Yeah, I don't want to go through all 17 games but again, like we were in - there were several games that we could've won for various reasons," Schoen said. "I'm not going to get into the details of every single game, you guys were there. 'Hey, if it would've went this way or the ball fell our way' or whatever it was, we could be in a different situation right now. We've got to have a good offseason, we've got to be ready to go, we've got to start faster, and we've got to be consistent week in and week out.

Also moving on were running backs coach Jeff Nixon, who recently took the Offensive Coordinator job at Syracuse University, and Strength and Conditioning Coach Craig Fitzgerald, who last month was hired as Director of Football Performance at University of Florida.

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