You can imagine my horror when seeing the poll under Ed's article below, which currently has a 78-4 vote margin in favor of Tom Coughlin over Rex Ryan as who'd you rather have coaching your team. I wonder if Ed rallied some of his loyal Big Blue View readers to stuff ballot. Regardless, I am not here to argue that Rex Ryan deserved to be higher than Tom Coughlin ESPN's recent Power Rankings of NFL head coaches. However, this isn't a runaway decision as it is being portrayed in the poll below.
The question isn't "who has had a more successful head coaching career," it is "which guy would rather have coaching your team" and I take that to mean starting in the 2011 season and moving forward. In that scenario, you can make a pretty strong argument for Ryan over Coughlin.
Yes, I am aware that Tom Coughlin won a Super Bowl back in the 2007-2008 season. You can never take that away from him, nor can you take away his 15 seasons of experience as a head coach and 15 playoff victories. Yet, if we are projecting to the future, I am going to focus on the previous two seasons since Ryan has first became a head coach.
What I have seen is a coach taking an organization to back-to-back AFC Championship Games, an organization that had been in only two AFC Championship Games in their entire history prior to him taking over. Those results make it hard to say his "bombastic" style is hurting them.(Yes, I am setting the table for a healthy Rex Ryan debate between myself and Ed).
In those same two years, Coughlin has had two ugly late season meltdowns that have both left the Giants out of the playoffs. Considering his age, Ryan's popularity in recruiting players (Coughlin's own players have expressed a desire to play for him and for the Giants to carry themselves more like the Jets), and the Giants recent December meltdowns, I think I just might take Rex for the 2011 season and beyond. I am banking on his potential to truly become one of the elite head coaches in the league, which of course involves winning a Super Bowl title.