While all this was happening in Chicago, the Giants met en masse (both owners in attendance) with Carolina's DC Steve Wilks. There was an anticipation that the Giants were going to put the full press on Wilks and wrap him upon the spot before he could take his scheduled trip to Arizona. However, the word that trickled out from the meeting was that the Giants were not enthused enough with Wilks' choice for OC, Mike McCoy.
All along in this process of finding a new head coach I have been very interested in Steve Wilks. He has never been my first choice, and he still isn’t, but I think that he seems to have a great connection with his players as well as being a very good motivator, and when I read the rumor that he might bring John DeFilippo as an offensive coordinator I became even more intrigued. However, as I have thought more about it I have become a bit skeptic, and the reason is that the rumor has it that Matt Patricia is the primary target for the Giants.
Dave Gettleman is the new general manager of the Giants, and so obviously he has a huge saying in the hiring of their new head coach. Gettleman worked closely with Steve Wilks for four seasons while they were both employed by the Panthers. In other words, Gettleman know Wilks very well, and reportedly likes him a lot. Now, one of the co-owners of the Giants - John Mara – said just two weeks ago that he much preferred their new head coach to have prior experience as a head coach or at least have extensive experience as a coordinator.
“I think, obviously, it has to be somebody who has either had head-coaching experience or at least has been a coordinator for a significant period of time, because I think if you don’t have that, the odds are really stacked against you. It’s not impossible for you to succeed without that, but I think the more experience that that individual has as either a head coach or as a coordinator on either side of the ball, I think is very important.’’
Steve Wilks does not have that kind of experience either as a head coach or a coordinator but neither does Matt Patricia. In fact, you could argue that their resumes are more or less the same, maybe with a slight advantage to Wilks because he has been an assistant head coach for two years.
Now, all of those rumors could obviously be false, but if the Giants hire Patricia over Wilks, even though neither of them fits the description John Mara gave, it almost has to signal that Gettleman did not want to speak that highly of Wilks in order to convince the other decision makers. That would instantly make me think twice about hiring Wilks.
Of course, Wilks could be hired by someone sooner than Patricia, and if so we will never know for sure if the Giants actually preferred Patricia to Wilks.