The Jacksonville Jaguars filled another vacancy on their staff Tuesday night as former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo signed to take the team’s quarterbacks coach vacancy. With the team having an unusual season behind center in 2019, McAdoo will now be charged with getting the best out of Gardner Minshew II and Nick Foles, who will battle to start this offseason.
With McAdoo being such a key hiring for the Jags, here are three things to know about the veteran assistant who will return to coaching after a few years off:
He’s been in the league for 16 years
McAdoo initially entered the NFL as a quality controls coach in 2004 with the New Orleans Saints and has worked his way up the ranks. It was there where he met and was interviewed by current Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who he followed to San Francisco and Green Bay (where McCarthy became a head coach).
While in Green Bay as a tight ends coach (2006–11) and a quarterbacks coach (2012–13), McAdoo saw the Packers have great success including a victory in Super Bowl XLV and numerous playoff runs. However, his biggest achievement was getting to coach Aaron Rodgers for two years, who he grew a solid bond with (which we’ll bring up later).
McAdoo’s last stop before Jacksonville was with the Giants where he got his first crack at being an offensive coordinator (2014-15). In just his second year with the role, he propelled the Giants to having the sixth-highest-scoring offense in the NFL. Eli Manning also had career highs in passing attempts, completions, and touchdowns that season.
Of course, that led to the Giants promoting him to their head coaching role in 2017. Initially, he was able to have some success in his first season by aiding the team to their first playoff berth since 2011. Unfortunately after that, the wheels fell off in 2018 and he was fired but there are certainly some good achievements on his résumé.
Aaron Rodgers is a fan
If there is one big complaint about McAdoo it’s was his handling of Manning in his last year as the Giants’ head coach. He broke the veterans’ streak of 210 consecutive starts in search of a spark offensively as the team was hit with multiple injuries, suspensions, and controversies in general.
However, the Jags won’t have to worry about McAdoo making any decisions in Jacksonville and he’ll be able to focus on being an assistant where he’s flourished at. In fact, Rodgers, a former two-time league MVP, endorsed him upon getting a job with the Giants, praising his ability to communicate with quarterbacks.
“I said ultimately I need and have always needed a guy who gets me prepared every week and can give me the opportunities to reach my potential,” Rodgers said of McAdoo. “And Ben did that every day the last two seasons for me and the other quarterbacks in the room. It was fun to see his personality even continue to come out this year as we became closer and as he just allowed himself to relax and be comfortable in those rooms.”
Gardner Minshew II praised the job that former quarterbacks coach Scott Milanovich did with him, so it’s a good chance he’ll mesh well with a coach like McAdoo if he’s truly the type of coach Rodgers says. The same applies to veteran Nick Foles if he is named the team’s starter.
He’s familiar with offensive coordinator Jay Gruden
The Jags initially brought in McAdoo to interview him for their offensive coordinator vacancy but the job was ultimately given to Jay Gruden, who is a familiar face to him. Both coaches were once rivals in the NFC East and faced each other three times as head coaches.
For Doug Marrone’s sake, this is actually a good thing as he’ll have a strong group of assistants running his offense. The unit will be coming off a season in which they finished 26th in points (18.8 PPG) and 20th in yards (341.8 YPG) and both assistants are certainly qualified to get the unit where it needs to be.
