Giants Notes: Gase, Reese, Coughlin, McAdoo

After confirming today that they’ll interview their coordinators, Ben McAdoo and Steve Spagnuolo, for their head coaching opening, the Giants have requested permission to speak to their first outside candidate, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link).

Rapoport reports that New York has asked to interview Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase, one of the week’s most popular targets. Before he meets with the Giants, Gase has a few other interviews lined up. He’ll reportedly meet with the Eagles today, the Browns on Wednesday, and the Dolphins on Thursday.

As the Giants eye candidates to become their new head coach, the team said goodbye to its old head coach during a press conference earlier today. Here are a few highlights from that session, which included co-owner John Mara and former head coach Tom Coughlin:

• General manager Jerry Reese kept his job this week, and Mara expressed some confidence in his GM today, but he also made it clear he expects improvement from Reese. As Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com tweets, Mara said there are many holes to fill on the roster, particularly on defense. The Giants co-owner also acknowledged that poor draft classes have had a role in the team’s slump, and suggested changes could be made on the personnel side (Twitter link via Albert Breer of the NFL Network).
• Asked if he has coached his last NFL game, Coughlin confirmed what has been reported since his ouster: “I’m not necessarily done with coaching,” he told the media, including Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News (Twitter link).
• Mara said today that he asked Coughlin to consider staying with the organization in some non-coaching capacity, and the 69-year-old said he’d consider it (Twitter link via La Canfora). I imagine that might become a more realistic possibility if Coughlin doesn’t find a head coaching job he likes.
• Mara and Reese will conduct the initial interviews for the Giants’ head coaching search, and will the recommend finalists for expanded interviews, tweets La Canfora. Mara also admitted that he can’t completely rule out the idea of trading a pick for a coach, which means someone like Saints head coach Sean Payton could be in play (Twitter link via Jordan Raanan of NJ.com).
• The Giants would prefer not to lose McAdoo, but Mara conceded he can only make “recommendations” to a new head coach — he won’t force the new coach to keep the current offensive coordinator on board (Twitter link via Raanan). Of course, McAdoo himself is also a candidate for the head coaching position.