Cleveland Browns Should Pursue Tom Coughlin

Tom Coughlin wants to work, and the Cleveland Browns need the help. It could be a perfect fit.

Tom Coughlin wanted to remain head coach of the New York Giants. In other non-news: The Cleveland Browns need a starting quarterback, a presidential candidate just upset voters with something he or she said, and LeBron James is sending out cryptic Tweets.

Related Story: 2016 NFL Mock Draft

As Dan Graziano of ESPN explained earlier this week, Coughlin has been making media appearances essentially saying what we all knew the second it was announced that he was “stepping down” as head coach of the New York Giants.

Coughlin never wanted to leave his post, but ownership of the Giants had already decided that New York offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo was the right man to take over for the veteran coach who guided the Giants to a pair of Super Bowl championships. He enjoyed being head coach of a proud franchise such as the Giants. He loves football, and he wants to work.

All of that is admirable, but Coughlin must now realize what’s done is done. He no longer has a role working within the Giants, at least he shouldn’t so long as McAdoo is serving as the club’s coach. All things, regardless of how great they were, must come to an end, and the bond that has linked Coughlin to the Giants has been broken.

Coughlin must also read the writing on the wall. Unless he is going to take a job with a small college or as the top man of a high school program, Coughlin’s coaching days are over. Coughlin can still get the job done on the sidelines, but he will turn 70 years old before the end of summer. Football, particularly at the National Football League level, is largely a young man’s game. Coughlin’s role in the NFL moving forward, if he wants one, will be in advising a franchise.

Looking at you, Cleveland Browns.

Any coach, even Bill Belichick, could benefit from sitting underneath the “Learning Tree” picking Coughlin’s brain. New Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson may top the list. Jackson had never really been a NFL head coach before being hired by the Browns earlier this year. Yes, he had that one season as the top man with the Oakland Raiders back in 2011, but Jackson basically led Tom Cable’s Raiders until the club hired a general manger in January 2012 who immediately fired Jackson.

Jan 5, 2016; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants former head coach Tom Coughlin addresses the media during a press conference at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim O /

Not only is Jackson a newbie with the Browns. Jackson has been given the hardest task in the NFL, one of turning a franchise that has mostly been pitiful since returning to the league in 1999 into a club that actually manages to play a meaningful January game or two. Quite frankly, it shouldn’t be anybody from within the front office of the Browns who gives Coughlin a call about potentially making a move to the Cleveland area.

That call should be made by Jackson as soon as humanly possible.

What role with Coughlin have with the Browns? For starters, he would not be the club’s general manager. The Browns have already decided on the structure of the team’s front office. Coughlin would be an outsider, which would do zero good to the former coach or to the Browns. Coughlin should instead work with and report directly to Jackson on matters such as roster formation and personnel decisions.

Jackson had, since being hired by the Browns, made it clear that he is going to tolerate little nonsense from players on the Cleveland roster. That is but one of several reasons that quarterback Johnny Manziel will be cut by the Browns next week. Manziel is a different case entirely, an individual who needs help and who maybe needs to be away from the NFL indefinitely. Jackson would do well to remember that a locker room of gentlemen who always remember to put the seat down probably isn’t winning much of anything in the NFL.

Coughlin has experience dealing with a plethora of personalities. He worked with, punished and then survived losing superstar wide receiver Plaxico Burress. Coughlin and Brandon Jacobs, the running back of the Giants who wasn’t always the most pleasant individual in the world and who sometimes seemed to not be giving 100 percent during games, had a father-and-son relationship behind the scenes and on the sidelines.

More from NFL Spin Zone

Relationship advice would, of course, only be the beginning of a partnership involving Coughlin and Jackson. Coughlin has seen it all and done it all in the NFL. He has coached for his job on multiple occasions. You would need fingers and toes to count the amount of times Coughlin was “fired” by the New York press. Coughlin has coached felons, average players, All-Pro talent and a quarterback who will one day be in the Hall of Fame.

The two-time Super Bowl champion would also, if hired by the Browns today, be the best coach the franchise has had in over 50 years; no disrespect to Jackson intended.

Coughlin would have to know, were he to take a call from Jackson and/or from the Browns, that there would be no future power struggle. He will never, ever be the head coach of the Browns. Period, no discussion required. Assuming that Coughlin would be okay with that condition, the Browns could be the ideal situation for a proven winner who still wants to work in the NFL but who is never again being asked to be a head coach.

The previously mentioned Belichick has earned a reputation for being one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Belichick has had Ernie Adams serving as his right-hand man and his “Football Research Director” since 2000 (courtesy of WEEI.com). That relationship turned the New England Patriots into what became the top organization in the NFL for a decade and a half. Could Coughlin have such a role working alongside Jackson? There’s only one way to find out.

Pick up the phone, Hue, and make the call.

Home/Cleveland Browns