New York Giants Notebook: Thomas McGaughey's Aspirations, Lot's to Love, and More

Sunday’s game between the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens will be like a mini-reunion of sorts between one-time special teams coordinators turned NFL head coaches.

And as Joe Judge of the Giants and John Harbaugh of the Raiders have shown, former special teams coordinators can be successful head coaches.

In his first season, Judge might have a losing record, but he’s brought along a Giants team that was so badly broken when he inherited it a lot farther along than anyone expected.

With a win against the Ravens and a loss by Washington to Carolina, New York can climb right back into first place in the NFC East, which they held for a few weeks in the second half of the season.

Harbaugh has had a little more success since being named to replace Brian Billick in 2008. Harbaugh’s Ravens have never finished with a record worse than .500 and have made it to the postseason six times, winning the Super Bowl in 2012.

All that success has current Giants special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey hoping that more special teams coordinators receive serious consideration for head coaching vacancies.

“Any time you can take that stigma away from special teams coaches not being able to be head coaches, that’s always good,” McGaughey said. “John was an outstanding coach while he was (in Philadelphia). Joe has done a great job so far this year. These two guys are kind of breaking that stereotype, the sigma.

“Over the history of the game, you look at the Dick Vermeils of the world, the Marv Levys of the world, all the guys have been head coaches--Bill Belichick--that have had backgrounds in special teams.”

Some people believe that it wasn’t until Judge and Harbaugh were given a position group's oversight that their respective candidacies were pushed to the forefront. Still, McGaughey doesn’t necessarily agree that has to be a prerequisite to receiving consideration for a head coaching vacancy.

“What your experiences are, are what they are,” he said. “If Joe had the opportunity here to before he coached wide receivers for six months and if John Harbaugh would’ve had the same opportunity after he coached DB’s for six months, I don’t think it would’ve been any different—they were still prepared to do the job.”

McGaughey, who’s never been a head coach at any level, said he has aspirations of becoming a head coach one day but added that he’s willing to bide his time until the moment is right.

“I’m just enjoying where I am now and learning as much as I can from Joe,” he said. “He’s been awesome as far as learning all the different situational things and just the preparation part, learning the different system.

“Obviously, him coming from where he’s come from, being a part of the Belichick tree and being with Nick Saban down in Alabama. It’s been really good for me.”

Although he aspires to be a head coach one day, McGaughey said he’s locked in and focused on the job he holds now.

“ I try and do the best possible job with the job that I have. The one thing that I’ve always learned in this coaching profession, all the jobs you ever chase, you never get. You take care of the one that you have and the next one will jump in your lap,” he said.

Lots to Love

The more defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has worked with cornerback Julian Love, the more he’s come to appreciate him.

Graham praised Love’s showing last week against the Browns when the second-year defensive back stepped in at the outside cornerback spots when top corner James Bradberry had to miss the game because he was on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

In that game, Love, who lined up at left cornerback, faced Browns receivers Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins, and Donovan Peoples-Jones twice each, allowing just 87 yards on five receptions and dropping a potential interception.

“Julian Love is growing on me day by day, week by week,” Graham said. “This guy, his toughness is showing up. The tackling, his versatility, he was competitive on a bunch of balls. … I was pleased with his effort on Sunday.”

This weekend Bradberry will be back in the lineup, but might Love, who has taken most of his snaps this year at safety, rotate in with Isaac Yiadom at the other cornerback spot?

It’s certainly a possibility given that the coaching staff's goal is to make sure they leave no stone unturned when it comes to player development so that when the off-season comes along, they have as complete a picture as possible regarding what they have and what they still need.

The Forgotten Man

Although the Giants failed to convert on a trick field goal attempt to center Nick Gates, that didn’t dampen McGaughey’s impressions of Gates as a potential receiver.

“You know what? You guys would be blown away, absolutely blown away if you saw him,” McGaughey said with a chuckle. “He’s caught every ball that we’ve thrown him. Since training camp we’ve been working this thing. I promise you. Everybody laughs now because he’s a center. He has the best pair of hands I have ever seen on a center.”

To that, a certain former Giants offensive lineman by the name of Rich Seubert, who played center for the Giants in 2010 in what was McGaughey’s final year with the team before he took a job with LSU, quipped via Twitter, “He must of forgot I played a little center.”

McCoy’s Second Wind

About a year ago, Giants backup quarterback Colt McCoy seriously contemplated hanging up his cleats after having some questions about his health and whether he could play the game the way he wanted to play it.

But the opportunities McCoy has received with the Giants in relief of Daniel Jones have not only gone a long way toward alleviating those doubts, but they’ve also given McCoy a new lease on his NFL life.

“I feel pretty confident in the way that I’ve played this year. First time being out there in a while and it kind of rejuvenated myself,” he said.

McCoy, who will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, hopes that he’ll get another opportunity to continue his NFL career, if not with the Giants, then somewhere else.

“Talking about myself, I feel very confident that I’ll keep going,” he said.

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