Mara will push effort to re-sign Coughlin
INDIANAPOLIS - John Mara has had only cursory talks with the agent for coach Tom Coughlin, but the Giants' president and co-owner said yesterday he will have more intensive discussions in an effort to reach a contract extension for the team's eighth-year head coach.
"I've had one or two very casual conversations with his agent [Gary O'Hagan], but we haven't gotten into serious negotiations yet," Mara said after a competition committee meeting Thursday at the NFL's annual scouting combine. "I just haven't had the time to do that, but I expect it to happen sooner rather than later."
Coughlin's job status was the subject of scrutiny late in the season, when the Giants fell out of playoff contention after a late-season collapse that included a 38-31 home loss to the Eagles, in which they blew a 31-10 fourth-quarter lead.
Mara said immediately after the Giants' win over the Redskins in the regular-season finale, which improved the team's record to 10-6, that Coughlin would be back next season. He also said Coughlin would receive a contract extension so that he wouldn't go into 2011 in the final year of a four-year deal he signed after the Giants' Super Bowl win in the 2007-08 season.
Mara also indicated that the rest of the Giants' coaching staff, as well as the rest of the team's employees, would not face layoffs, pay cuts or furloughs if there is a lockout of the NFL's players. If the league's owners and NFL Players Association don't hammer out a new collective-bargaining agreement before the current deal expires March 4, owners are expected to lock out the players until a new deal is reached.
"We met with our entire staff, both football and non-football a little over a week ago and told them we were not planning any layoffs, any salary cuts, any furloughs," Mara said. "There would be a hiring freeze and there's a salary freeze for the moment. That will be revisited at a later date. We'll see where we are a few months from now. But for now, that's what our intention is - to not make any drastic changes."
Mara said that could change if there is an extended lockout, but he hoped to avoid such a situation.
"I told them I'd be back in touch with all of them and communicate with them a few months from now," he said. "If we have to make any changes, we'll talk about it at that time. As of right now, we're not planning on doing anything."
No franchise tag. Unlike many teams that have placed a franchise tag on a key player, the Giants do not plan to do so. Thursday was the deadline. The Giants have a handful of key players who are scheduled to be free agents, including running back Ahmad Bradshaw. With the franchise designation, a team can protect itself from losing an impending unrestricted free agent by offering him a one-year deal worth the average of the five highest-paid players at his position.