The Giants will need to make a late-offseason replacement on their coaching staff. One of their longest-tenured staffers is stepping away for an opportunity in the XFL.
Assistant special teams coach Anthony Blevins is leaving Brian Daboll‘s staff, per the New York Daily News’ Pat Leonard (on Twitter). Although the Giants have changed head coaches twice in the past four years, Blevins has been part of the team’s past six staffs. It is not especially common to see July coaching staff departures, but the XFL will provide a promotion of sorts. The Vegas Vipers named Blevins as their head coach, per a team announcement.
“I’m honored to be named head coach of the Vipers. I watched the XFL last season, and I was incredibly impressed by the action on the field and the coaching on the sidelines,” Blevins said. “I’m looking forward to taking the next step in my career, and this a great opportunity to share my knowledge and experience while getting the most out of players on the field for the fans in the stands and watching at home.”
Blevins will replace Hall of Famer Rod Woodson as the Vipers’ leader. Woodson agreed to join the twice-rebooted league as the Vegas franchise’s head coach, but the sides mutually parted ways last month. The Vipers went 2-8 last season.
In place as the Giants’ assistant ST coach since 2021, Blevins also held roles on defense during his time in New York. The 46-year-old assistant joined Pat Shurmur‘s staff in 2018, leaving a five-year post as Bruce Arians‘ assistant ST coach in Arizona for the same role in New York. The Giants moved Blevins to assistant defensive backs coach upon hiring Joe Judge — who came to the Big Apple with a special teams background — in 2020 and then to assistant linebackers coach in 2021. Daboll returned Blevins to the assistant ST role last year.
The Browns interviewed Blevins for their special teams coordinator role earlier this year, but the gig went to former Colts ST boss Bubba Ventrone. Blevins has been in the NFL for the past 10 seasons, spending most of the previous decade as a college assistant.
The Giants still have ST coordinator Thomas McGaughey, who joined the team during the same offseason in which Blevins arrived, in place. McGaughey is the last staff link to the Shurmur years now. Defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson and assistant DBs coach Mike Treier are holdovers from Judge’s staff, however.
NFL is more than happy with their XFL agreement as another pipeline for prospects, coaches, referee staffs and player development personnel.
Also provides opportunities for coaches and office members to be closer to their preferred cities
It also is a great place to try out different rules and new ideas to see if there are ways to improve the NFL experience.
yep. I love the extra point stuff. that extra play is a better way to cap off a TD drive than a generic kick.
doubt we’d see that implemented anytime soon tho.
XFL kickoff is a must for NFL, who seems to be in denial of being out-smarted by (Oliver Luck and Vince?)
Good way for a HC in waiting to get professional HC experience on his resume.
For the Giants this is addition by subtraction. As a lifelong fan the past 6 years the special teams has been a nightmare. One long return after another, while on the other hand it’s either a fair catch or 3 yard return for us. Can’t remember the last time we had a game changing return, or forced a significant change of field in our kicking game. Should have let him go years ago.
Good luck in the XFL which will go the way of the American Alliance Football League and have players return from practice to find out they’ve been evicted from their hotel rooms and having their paychecks bounce.
I agree with Rock Hauler, not missing much here. I think XFL coaching is a death sentence to become an NFL head coach. Our special teams has been terrible
It just seems odd to me that with so many bloated coaching staffs to choose from, this XFL team decided to poach an assistant special teams guy as a HC. They must be operating on a very restricted budget over there.