Mike McCarthy, a Super Bowl champion and one of the most successful NFL coaches of this era, today became the second candidate to interview for the Giants’ head coaching position.
McCarthy, 56, met with team president John Mara, general manager Dave Gettleman, vice president of football operations Kevin Abrams, as well as other staff.
Pat Shurmur was dismissed as head coach on Monday.
Kris Richard, the Dallas’ Cowboys’ defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach, interviewed for the position yesterday.
McCarthy was the Green Bay Packers’ coach from 2006-2018 (when he was let go with four games remaining), which was one of the most successful eras in the franchise’s storied history. In his 12 full seasons, the Packers qualified for the playoffs nine times, including eight seasons in a row from 2009-16, which is tied for the third-longest streak in NFL history.
McCarthy is one of just four coaches to lead a single franchise to eight or more consecutive postseason appearances, joining Pro Football Hall of Famers Tom Landry and Chuck Noll, as well as New England’s Bill Belichick.
Green Bay capped the 2010 season with a 31-25 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV as McCarthy joined Bill Cowher as the only coaches to lead their respective teams to three road victories as the No. 6 seed in the playoffs en route to the championship (a feat Tom Coughlin and the Giants accomplished as a fifth seed in 2007).
McCarthy was 125-77-2 (.618) in the regular season and 10-8 (.556) in the postseason for a combined record of 135-85-2 (613). The 135 victories are the 28th-highest total in NFL history and place McCarthy one victory behind Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram and two behind Sean Payton, whose New Orleans Saints host an NFC Wild Card Game on Sunday.
McCarthy’s 135 victories are the second-highest total in Packers history, trailing only Curly Lambeau’s 212.
Two of McCarthy’s postseason losses were to the Giants in Lambeau Field, in the 2007 NFC Championship Game and a 2011 divisional playoff game.
His 2011 team set a Packers record with 15 victories (against one loss) and established franchise standards for points (560), touchdowns (70), passing touchdowns (51) and total net yards (6,482).
McCarthy is one of the NFL’s most innovative offensive coaches. From 2006-17, Green Bay averaged 26.1 points a game, the league’s third-highest total during that time. The Packers finished in the top 10 in the NFL in total points every season from 2007-14 and in nine of the 12 seasons McCarthy completed. Over the same 12 year-year period, they finished in the top 10 in total yards nine times. Green Bay’s 242 giveaways in that time were the NFL’s second fewest.
In his first two years in Green Bay, McCarthy worked with Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. In 2008, Aaron Rodgers succeeded Favre and went on to become a two-time NFL MVP. In addition, McCarthy and his offense produced five Pro Bowl wide receivers in Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams.
When he was hired by the Packers on Jan. 12, 2006, the 42-year-old McCarthy was the NFL’s third-youngest head coach, behind Payton and the Jets’ Eric Mangini. He took over a team that had finished 4-12, its first losing season since 1991 (pre-Favre). Green Bay was 8-8 in McCarthy’s first year and 13-3 in 2007, when the Packers won their first of six NFC North titles during his tenure (including four in a row from 2011-14).
McCarthy entered the NFL in 1993 as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive assistant/quality control coach and held that same position in New Orleans from 2000-04. Two years later, he began a four-season stint as the Chiefs’ quarterbacks coach. McCarthy first moved to Green Bay as the quarterbacks coach in 1999. He was the offensive coordinator for the Saints from 2000-04 and the San Francisco 49ers in 2005.
