NY Giants should give Tom Coughlin one more year

Tom Coughlin’s two Super Bowl titles in his 10 years with the Giants earned him the right to a do-over in 2014 after Big Blue’s dreadful season ended in a dreary downpour. But if he misses the playoffs again next year, then it will be time for him to go and the Giants will need a new coach in 2015.

Even though there has been no official word from the Giants just yet, Coughlin’s return appears to be a formality. He’s not getting fired two seasons removed from his second title and it would be out of character for him to walk away after a 7-9 season, his first losing one since his rookie year with the Giants in 2004.

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His situation could be clarified as early as Monday afternoon when Coughlin and GM Jerry Reese address the media, but after the season-ending 20-6 victory over the Redskins, Coughlin curiously rejected an opportunity to put the issue to rest, which naturally leads to speculation about what he’s thinking.

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I asked him during his postgame news conference if he could say definitively that he would be back.

“Don’t ask me that,” he said. “I’m not answering that type of question right now. There will be an evaluation of everything, I’m sure. We’ll go from there.”

I followed up by asking him if he really thought it was an inappropriate question. “No, but I haven’t answered the question all year. Why would I now?”

Well, only because the season is over.

Coughlin’s resume with the Giants could be good enough to one day get him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but also spotty enough that the Giants would not be out of line to ask Coughlin to retire after next season if he misses the playoffs for the fifth time in six years.

The only two seasons he’s won playoff games are the two years he won the Super Bowl. The first team in 2007 was 10-6, which at the time tied for the worst record for a Super Bowl champion. The second team in 2011 broke the record by finishing the regular season 9-7. He is 0-3 in the three other years he’s made the playoffs. He’s missed the playoffs five times.

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Coughlin waves to the fans as he walks off the field, but was it his farewell?

The Giants would have signed up for two titles in 10 years the day Coughlin was hired. But they underachieved so many other times. After such a long time, sometimes the coach’s message stops getting received.

In the last week, many Jets spoke out in support of Rex Ryan’s return. The Giants feel the same way about Coughlin.

“I want him back,” safety Antrel Rolle said. “I wouldn’t want to play for anyone else. He’s an outstanding coach, he’s more of a phenomenal person and this is exactly what we need in the locker room. I think it’s been proven. We just got off to a real slow start. It had nothing to do with coach Coughlin.”

Coughlin kept the team together after the 0-6 start, the Giants’ worst since 1976. They won seven of their last 10 games and could have possibly won the NFC East if the defense had stopped Tony Romo in the final minute of the second game against Dallas. The Giants problems are more about personnel – Reese’s domain – than coaching, which is why Coughlin’s return has always seemed to be more his decision than management’s.

But the Giants still will have to make a decision in the next week or so. The three-year, $20 million contract Coughlin signed after he won his second Super Bowl expires after the 2014 season. The Giants never let their coach go into the final year of their deal.

Coughlin is the oldest coach in the NFL and will be 68 next August. He’s probably just coaching year-to-year anyway. Even so, if they let him coach out the final year of his contract, his status could become a season-long distraction.

So the Giants should give him a one-year extension through 2015. If they make the playoffs and he wants to continue, they can give him another one-year extension. If they don’t make the playoffs, then ask him to leave and the $7 million or so from his 2015 contract will be a nice thank-you for delivering two trophies.

“I hope he’s back and he wants to be back and the Giants want him back,” Eli Manning said. “You never know how these things work out, but I definitely hope he’s the coach of the Giants next year.”

Coughlin and his captains never let the locker room splinter during the 0-6 start. He never lost his energy. “He’s a fireball,” Mathias Kiwanuka said. ‘He’s got more energy than anybody I know his age..”

As the drenched Coughlin walked off the field, he waved to fans above the tunnel leading to the Giants’ locker room. Was he saying goodbye? Not likely. All that remains is for the Giants and Coughlin to say he’s back.

But if next year is like this year, that wave could be for real.