ESPN'S Josina Anderson reported on Twitter on Thursday morning that former 49ers head coach Mike Singletary was interviewing for the New York Giants' linebackers coach job. Singletary and new Giants head coach Ben McAdoo worked together briefly in 2005 in San Francisco, where McAdoo was the offensive line coach and Singletary coached the linebackers.
A 10-time Pro Bowl linebacker and Super Bowl XX champion as a player with the Chicago Bears, Singletary's is the biggest name yet mentioned as a potential McAdoo assistant. And I'm sure fans will get excited at this news because they remember Singletary as an over-the-top screamer during his brief and unsuccessful stint as 49ers head coach from 2008-10. But the idea that replacing former Giants linebackers coach Jim Herrmann (now with Indianapolis) with Singletary last year might have improved the Giants' linebackers' performance is of course crazy. Whoever the linebackers coach is, the Giants will need to get better linebackers if they want to get better linebacker play.
That said, a first-time head coach like McAdoo does benefit from having assistants who've been head coaches before. Should he join the staff, Singletary would be the second such assistant, joining Steve Spagnuolo, who's expected to stay on as defensive coordinator. McAdoo had hoped to bring in former Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, a close friend and adviser of his from their time together in Green Bay, but Philbin is joining the Indianapolis Colts' staff instead.
Also expected to return to McAdoo's staff are special-teams coordinator Tom Quinn, quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, tight ends coach Kevin M. Gilbride, running backs coach Craig Johnson, offensive assistant Ryan Roeder, safeties coach Dave Merritt and cornerbacks coach Tim Walton. Not all will remain in their 2014 roles, but all are expected to remain on the staff. Sullivan could be the offensive coordinator, though it's expected that McAdoo, the offensive coordinator for the past two years, will continue to call offensive plays.
The Giants also are expected to hire former Rams offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti and former 49ers receivers coach Adam Henry to their offensive staff. Henry was Odell Beckham Jr.'s position coach at LSU and has remained close with the Giants' superstar receiver since Beckham entered the NFL in 2014.
McAdoo said last week that he would wait until the staff was complete before announcing it.