People are worried Marcus Freeman may jump to the NFL. Not me.
The New York Giants are coming up on 2 months without a permanent head coach after firing Brian Daboll following the team’s 10th game this season. Daboll started out with a 9-7-1 debut season, winning in the wild card round of the playoffs on the road at the Vikings and winning the NFL Coach of the Year Award, but finished his 3.5 seasons with the club with a poor 20-40-1 overall record.
Back on December 10th word began to spread that Marcus Freeman was among the favorites to take the Giants head coaching position. Is there legit interest from the Giants? Possibly, yes. Is Freeman willing to listen and go through the interview process? Also quite possible. Should Freeman leave for the NFL? Absolutely not.
Gotham is a Mess
We don’t need to go in depth at what a bad idea it would be to take over the New York Giants franchise at this moment in time. They have the fewest wins in the NFL over the last decade and even worse have barely any cap space to rebuild for the future. Stadium co-tenants in the New York Jets–also one of the worst teams in the NFL for many years–are projected to have nearly $91 million in cap space going into the 2026 season. The Giants are projected to have just under $17.5 million in cap space.
Looks fun!
Are you excited about the CTE Brothers in quarterback Jaxson Dart and running back Cam Skattebo? That’s a tough watch as a neutral fan and would make me queasy with Freeman as their head coach.
The Giants are also projected to own the no. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft! Only for 2026 to be one of the weakest perceived talent pools in recent memory. Where is the draw to take this Giants job?
Money & Prestige
Many would argue the NFL is the pinnacle of American sports and the prestige associated with reaching that coaching position is unmatched within the industry. That’s debatable for some of the top college football coaches throughout the country. I’d say the immediate limelight associated with taking a NFL job is typically brighter, but obscurity can come quickly to the worst franchises, you know, like the New York Giants.
The money situation is interesting but let’s take a deeper look. Freeman is reportedly making upwards of $10 million per season at Notre Dame and a “rolling contract” according to athletic director Pete Bevacqua could see another increase push Freeman over the $11 million per season mark.
Could Freeman be on this list in 2026?
Yes, salaries are rising in the NFL too, but Freeman already makes more than 75% of the head coaches at the pro level. In fact, if you zoom out Freeman would be hovering around a top 25 salary among all sports in North America.
For the record, Daboll signed a 5-year deal worth $30 million with the Giants back in January 2022. Recent new hire and first-time NFL head coach Ben Johnson signed a 5-year $65 million deal with the Bears to re-set the market on rookie leaders. Are the Giants willing to go upwards of $14 to $15 million per season with Freeman (in the territory of current Super Bowl winning coaches) and would he even be making more money with the effective tax rates in Indiana vs. living in New Jersey?
The NFL Club & Control
When these NFL rumors pop up they usually send us college football fans in a tizzy. Promoting the college-to-NFL angle can be a very lucrative business and generates a lot of clicks. The jump from college to the NFL also hardly ever works and we also overestimate how much of a chance people outside the NFL bubble have in getting these jobs. Go ask Giants fans right now, are they truly interested in Marcus Freeman without any NFL experience?
The NFL executives are probably even worse in wanting someone from within the league. Ask me right now and I’d guess there’s a 95% chance the Giants will ultimately hire an offensive or defensive coordinator from another franchise. This is just what these teams continue to do for the most part.
Giants GM Joe Schoen picks the players.
The lack of consistency within the rules at the college level could be a determining factor in Freeman wanting to leave, although let’s not forget that in the NFL the head coach is ultimately a middle manager within a larger professional sports ecosystem. You’re far more of a king at the college level.
The Giants have an evolving ownership situation (the Mara and Tisch families just sold a 10% stake to the widow of David Koch), poor attendance, an unenviable stadium situation, and perhaps most importantly for Marcus Freeman, a general manager embroiled in poor performance and apparently sticking around for 2026 and beyond.
Now? Or Not Now? Ever?
Famous last words, but I would be shocked and flabbergasted if Freeman left right now to take the Giants job. I can understand the College Football Playoff process being a huge turn off and the general struggles of winning it all at Notre Dame being too stressful to manage after some time. But leaving now, for the Giants??
Not with the way recruiting is humming right now, not with a team that is expected to be right back in the top 5 next year. Would any sane person walk away from a second season with CJ Carr to go lose 15 games with the Giants? There can’t be anybody advising Freeman who would tell him this is a good idea.
I will die on this hill–any college coach going to the NFL is making a terrible career decision. The history of through and through college coaches with no NFL experience actually moving to the professional level is small (and arguably even more restricted over the last 10 years) and the example of these coaches having success even smaller. The NFL is a cold and often soulless place, stay in college Freeman.
Yeah, I can’t see Freeman’s style of coaching translating to the NFL that well. From what we’ve seen, he’s a rah rah motivator (and a hardass in private) who has to whip these 18-22 year olds into a coherent team. That kind of stuff has historically not worked well with team of NFL veterans, just look back to all the articles on how much the Jags players hated Urban Meyer.
The only reason I might not be shocked if he goes at some point: he has a lot of young kids. I don’t know if the NFL hours are better exactly, but flying around to recruit 16-year-olds can’t be easy on the home life.
A point, I guess, though NFL hours are brutal in their own right. Plus his family is well settled in to the ND and local community, from what we can see. ND is extremely family oriented, which as far as I can see exists very seldom in the NFL and certainly not in the NYG grouping since, well, the passing of Wellington Mara?
Complete agreement. So much data backs up all your major points.
Obviously the Giants are putting this out there to distract their horribly discontent fan base. But by no means does this indicate even that they have a real interest. Certainly the Rooney Rule is another reason to get such an “interest” cited in the media.
Well maybe Marcus is thinking of leaving. SC just chickened out of the series, replaced for the next two years by BYU, so there goes one win you can pencil into the schedule every year.
I worry about NFL interest in general, long term, but I do think this Giants situation is a dumpster fire and that he’s shrewd enough to not touch it. Like you said, let some NFL OC/DC take their chance. That Schoen hasn’t been fired makes the job even less palatable unless it’s a clear “he’s the GM but really he does what you say now” situation like Ben Johnson got with the Bears. And Johnson was the hottest offensive coordinator candidate for multiple years, not a college coach making the jump.
Some of the best coaches in CFB history have not succeeded in the NFL. Marcus should make his legend at ND before going to the league.