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Hiring Steve Spagnuolo A Big Risk For New York Giants

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By @Bigwoolf5

New York Giants, Steve Spagnuolo

Derick E. Hingle-USA Today Sports

The New York Giants hired Steve Spagnuolo as their new defensive coordinator this past week, and that hiring has made many fans happy. Initially, after Perry Fewell was fired, I thought Spagnuolo should be the guy to replace him, but after putting more thought into it, hiring Spagnuolo is a big risk.

Giants fans will remember Spagnuolo from his two great years as the team’s defensive coordinator in 2007 and 2008, and rightfully so. He was in charge of a defense that led the Giants to a Super Bowl victory and a No. 1 seed in the NFC the next year, too. Spagnuolo has had success in New York, and for that reason, this hiring makes sense, but this time around, the circumstances are quite different.

When Spagnuolo was the defensive coordinator for the Giants, he was heavily reliant on the pass rush to cover up for a decent-at-best secondary. He was lucky enough to have one of the best pass rushing combinations in recent memory. During that Super Bowl run, the Giants’ defensive ends were Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora, who were both in their prime years.

Spagnuolo now will be taking over a defense that has huge question marks along the defensive line. The team’s best pass rusher, Jason Pierre-Paul, is an unrestricted free agent and may not be back. Even if he is back, there are still question marks at the other defensive end position. Mathias Kiwanuka is likely to be cut, Robert Ayers is coming off a season ending injury, and Damontre Moore has struggled with consistency early on in his career.

Yes, Spagnuolo had success with the Giants in the past, but looking back on that success, it may be more a result of the players and not so much because of his coaching. To further support that point, look how much Spagnuolo struggled when he left the Giants.

He was hired as the head coach of the St Louis Rams in 2009, and in three years finished with a record of 10-38, which is very bad. You can argue that maybe he took a head coaching job too early and maybe wasn’t ready for it, which is a fair argument, but after being fired by the Rams, he was hired as defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints and struggled there, too.

In his one year in New Orleans, Spagnuolo led the defense that gave up the most yards ever in a single season. While these were extenuating circumstances, with bounty-gate and Sean Payton being suspended for the year, being the coach of the defense that was the worst in the history of the NFL doesn’t look good on a resume.

You can look at Spagnuolo’s career and make of it whatever you would like. You can make excuses for him and say that he was in bad situations, or you can be someone who thinks that the Giants’ players in 2007-08 catapulted his career, but no matter which way you look at it, the Giants hiring Spagnuolo is a very big risk at this point in time.

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