What Steve Spagnuolo return means for the New York Giants

Rejoice, New York Giants fans. Better days are coming. After seeing five years of bad defensive play, the New York Giants have hired Steve Spagnuolo to be the team’s defensive coordinator.

Spagnuolo was previously the Giants’ defensive coordinator from 2007-2008, and he’s fondly remembered for his blitz-heavy defenses that helped lead the team to a Super Bowl. Spagnuolo left the team after accepting a head-coaching job with the Rams in 2009. After being fired by St. Louis, Spagnuolo spent time in New Orleans as the defensive coordinator in 2012, and he was Baltimore’s secondary coach in 2014.

For all intents and purposes, this is a great move by the Giants. “Spags” has been cited as being a genius when it comes to making adjustments on the fly.

“I have never really met anyone quite like him in regards to what he was able to do and the things he would do on the fly,” Osi Umenyiora said, according to the NY Daily News. “It was crazy. You’d come in with a game plan and something wouldn’t be going right or something we were doing would be getting shredded, and he’d literally – right there on the sideline – come up with something different.”

In a division with Chip Kelly’s high-octane offense and guys like Dez Bryant, making adjustments on the fly is a must. Perry Fewell very seldom was able to make proper adjustments, which no doubt helped lead to his firing.

Umenyiora, of course, was part of the 2007 Super Bowl defense that led the NFL with 53 regular-season sacks. That defense also held the then-highest scoring offense in league history to a mere 14 points.

This year was a perfect example of how brilliant Spags can be. Baltimore’s secondary suffered a litany of injuries, but Spagnuolo worked with what he had, and the Ravens secondary played pretty well down the stretch. Spags was able to make chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what.

While some people are concerned that Spagnuolo’s past success with the Giants was due to the talent (Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, etc.) on the defense, a crucial thing is forgotten. Although the ’07 defense won a Super Bowl, the 2008 defense – a defense without Strahan and Umenyiora – was statistically better. The defense finished seventh in 2007 and fifth in 2008, per NFL.com.

The Giants still have a fearsome defensive line, with or without Jason Pierre-Paul. Johnathan Hankins is a monster in the middle, Robert Ayers had the best year of his career in 2014, Kerry Wynn showed promise and Damontre Moore will be a double-digit sack guy if he can keep his head in the game.

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Despite the positives, there is a caveat that comes with the Spagnuolo signing.

As previously mentioned, Spags was the Saints defensive coordinator in 2012, and that defense finished dead last in the NFL. In fact, that was a defense that gave up 52-points to Big Blue. Spagnuolo was also an absolute failure in St. Louis as its head coach.

However, perhaps the biggest concern with Spagnuolo’s return is the expectations. Everybody within the Giants organization is expecting greatness. With Spagnuolo’s track record, he has lofty expectations to meet from day one. There is no waiting period; New York wants to see immediate results.

Spagnuolo has confidence, though, and he’s excited to be back with the Giants.

“I was hoping to take the next step, God willing, and be a coordinator again,” Spagnuolo said, via Giants.com. “I’m ecstatic that it’s with Tom Coughlin. Tom is the highest character guy I know. The feeling I have is one of excitement. We’re going to work our butts off, and hopefully we will do great things together.”

Final verdict: A

For what it’s worth, I think next year’s defense has more talent than 2008’s did. The secondary combined with sufficient linebackers and a lethal defensive line is scary enough without Spagnuolo’s genius. Something had to be done to improve the defense, and Spagnuolo’s energy, motivational skills and defensive pedigree will help the team immensely. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some stumbling out of the gate, but bringing Spags back was axiomatically the right move for the Giants.

Next: Johnathan Hankins emerging as a star for New York Giants