Report: Doug Pederson Wants Steve Spagnuolo as His Defensive Coordinator

Les Bowen, by way of Marcus Hayes, is reporting that Frank Reich and Steve Spagnuolo are the top choices for Doug Pederson as his offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively.

Doug Pederson and Frank Reich were very briefly Panthers QBs together in 1995. Source tells @inkstainedretch Pederson would like Reich as OC

— Les Bowen (@LesBowen) January 17, 2016

Same source tells @inkstainedretch Steve Spagnuolo is Pederson’s top choice for defensive coordinator. But can he get Spags away from NYG?

— Les Bowen (@LesBowen) January 17, 2016

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Reich was just fired by the Chargers as their offensive coordinator. He’s been an offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach with the Colts, a wide receivers coach with the Cardinals before joining the Chargers.

Former Lions coach, Jim Schwartz, has also been linked to being a candidate for the defensive coordinator position, but I think I’d rather have Spags over him. I think anyone would. But, getting Spagnuolo away from the Giants may prove to be too much. I don’t think the Giants would let him go.

Bowen still thinks Pat Shurmur and Brad Childress could come in as part of the offensive coaching staff.

I’m not sure when u get to the too many cooks/spoiled soup scenario, but apparently door still not closed on Shurmur/Childress on off. staff

— Les Bowen (@LesBowen) January 17, 2016

This is interesting. Note that this isn’t the same person breaking Eagles news as we’ve had in the past. When Doug Pederson was in town, he could have a good relationship with Marcus Hayes, which is kind of surprising. A new head coach in town means new reporters will have new sources, and we’re likely to see new names break Eagles news. I mean, Les Bowen broke the Pederson hire news.

We’ll see what new sources break certain news as we move on into this new [old] Eagles era, but this is certainly something to keep an eye on.

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As for the Giants, they think they’ve already got Spagnuolo back for another year at least. After hiring Ben McAdoo as their next head coach, despite also interviewing Spagnuolo for the vacancy, they seem pretty confident that Spags will just re-join the fold, no questions asked. [He does have a contract, so I guess it’d be easy to assume.]

Ben McAdoo would not come out and confirm he is retaining Spagnuolo Friday during his introductory press conference, saying that, “the discussions are fluid and ongoing. There’s nothing I want to report. When we have something definite, we will report.”
 
But, McAdoo was asked if he and and Spagnuolo had any “discussions” about how to fix the Giants’ 32nd-ranked defense, he answered in part by saying, “… being the second year in the system is going to help some guys.”
 
Then, when Giants president and CEO John Mara was speaking to reporters after the press conference, he was asked about what advice he gave McAdoo as a first-time head coach. Toward the end of his response, Mara said, “… he’s got a great resource in Steve Spagnuolo here who’s been a head coach. I’m sure Steve will help him a little bit.”
 
So, yes. Spagnuolo will be the Giants’ defensive coordinator in 2016. McAdoo’s offensive coordinator is expected to be Giants quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, but Sullivan’s name did not come up during the press conference. McAdoo was asked about former Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, who is expected to join the staff in some capacity, and he delivered a pretty clever quip in response.

Come on, Spags. Do it. Screw those bastards over. Connor Barwin would love it if you came back here.