Mara Doubles Down on Schoen

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2 • 988 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With Joe Schoen officially returning, the Giants conversation turns into a full-on tug of war between two realities: is the roster quietly close, or is this just stability theater after another lost season? Evan owns the take he got wrong, Tiki meets him halfway, and the core argument becomes clear, the next head coach has to be experienced, because the margin for error is gone. The debate hits everything Giants fans fight about: how much of the losing was coaching versus roster building, whether Schoen can be trusted with another major hire, and why “meaningful December football” has to be the standard in 2026. Then it gets spicy with a back-and-forth on the salary cap, keeping key free agents like Jermaine Eluemunor and Wan’Dale Robinson, and whether the Giants are actually in a healthy spot or just kicking the can like everyone else. Plus, fan calls, Mike McCarthy as a real option, frustration with “stability” as an excuse, and the big question hovering over it all: if the roster is better, why does it keep looking worse?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, if you're just tuning in, we've already seen some firings here on this Black Monday.
0:03.6	Pete Carroll is no longer the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
0:06.8	Kevin Stefansky, no longer the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. And so naturally those guys will be mentioned. They'll be talked about as, hey, hey, giant fans, would you hire Kevin Stavansky? More on that in a few minutes. Would you hire Pete Carroll? There's another name I heard yesterday, and this was a stunter, of a big-name guy who will get interviews.
0:25.2	And I'm very curious, Tiki's opinion on this, Sean, as well.
0:29.4	So instead of me telling you, here is Ian Rappaport on this shocking potential head coach.
0:35.9	There's a chance we have not heard the last of Philip Rivers in the NFL.
0:40.1	Shores to say Rivers is expected to get head coach interest in this cycle.
0:45.0	Teams are doing the research, doing the background work.
0:47.7	This has happened in the past, and we'll see what interest level Rivers has in this.
0:52.7	When did this happen in the past?
0:55.6	A guy going straight from playing to coaching.
0:58.7	This sounds like baseball.
1:00.0	Because this happened to baseball, right?
1:01.3	Basketball.
1:02.2	Or basketball.
1:03.1	Jason kid is a perfect example.
1:05.1	This is, has this ever happened in football?
1:07.6	I don't know if they're trying to refer to the Jeff Saturday situation.
1:10.4	No, I'm talking about going straight from the field because he was literally on the field two weeks ago. Now, I didn't play this past weekend. I got two examples, but they were both coordinator jobs. They did not go right to head coach. Davis Webb and Josh McCown. Yeah. Or those two got to that yours? Davis Webb went right to quarterback coach first.
1:27.8	I just said coaching. I didn't say head coach. I didn't say head coaching. I don't think this has been done as a head coach. No, there's no way this has been done as head coach. Now, look, I guess it makes sense because Philip Rivers was coaching in high school. And it's, it's coaching. Got experience. You don't know what it's going to look like on the NFL level, but you do know that he has the mind to be in front of a room full of, in this case, boys.
1:54.9	But it's different.
1:57.2	But, I mean, that's interesting.
	...

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