Forme♛r Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride wouldn’t have opted out of retirement if he hadn’t been confident in his new venture.
Gilbride left the Giants in 2014 after three years as the quarterbacks coach and seven years as the offensive coordinator, only to jump back into football in April when the revamped XFL introduced him as the first head coach of its New York team.
The XFL, scheduled to begin play in February, released the names and logos of its eight teams on Wednesday and Gilbride said he is thrill💝ed with his team’s name, the New York Guardians. He considers it a nod to the area’s first responders.
Gilbride also is excited to return to MetLife S💙tadium, which is listed as the XFL’s largest venue.
“Now it’s a matter of just getting it filled. Of course, we’ve got to put forth a good product a🅠nd we’re looking forward to doing that,” Gilbride said.
Gilbride accomplished a lot with the Giants, including wins in two Super Bowls, but he also got to witness the birth of the Eli Manning era. The Giants acquired Manning in a draft-day trade with the Chargers in 2004, when Gilbride began as the quarterbacks coach, giving the now 🍨67-year-old onಌe of the more unique perspectives on the veteran quarterback.
As Manning, 38, enters his 15th season with the Giants, Gilbride said he knows what the Giants n🔯eed in order fꦑor the veteran QB to be successful.
“The one thing that I’ve always stated is that if Eli Manning has a quality offensive line then he’ll be a successful quarterback,” Gilbride said. “ When we were successful and won those Super Bowl🐈s and were near the top of the league offensively, it’s usually when we had an effective offensive line that allowed him to do the things that he does best. Which is, get everybody in a good position, recognize what’s happening defensively, and throw the ball accurately the right person and then keep the defense off the field. He’s always done that when he had the sufficient protection.
“Now, people get upset [and say] ‘Well, he can’t do this’ and ‘He can’t do that.’ … He’s never — from the day he got there⛦ — solved problems with his feet,” he added. “It’s always been with his brain and his arm. I think it looks like, and you never know until the season starts, but from what I can tell, It looks like they’ve shored up the offensive line and it looks like if that has happened, I expect him to have a good year.”
The Giants also added quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth-overall pick in this year’s draft, a similar situation to Manning’s first year. Gilbride remembers that when Manning was brought in to battle with Kurt Wa🌼rner, he was an ambitious rookie wanting to play right away.
But it wa♊sn’t until the Giants’ playoff chances began to dwindle that the team gave Manning 🌳a chance.
Gilbride imagines the Giants will take a similar approach with Jones, choosing to bring him i🌊n only “🔴if they start to stumble.”
“It’s going to be up to Eli, and his teammates obviously, to play well enough for him to stay in that spot,” Gilbride said. “I have a suspicion that he’ll do just that, again, because he’s the competitor that he is, I can assure you that he’s not relinquishing 𓆉that po♈sition very easily.”
The Giants have been criticized for drafting Jones, with naysayers forecasting the team’s eventual transition at quarterback to be a bump𒅌y one. But that’s part of the job description, according to Gilbride, who believes the great ones “don’t get daunted by that challenge.”
“I don’t know anything about Daniel Jones, I have not spoken to him, I🐻 have not studied him on film,” Gilbride🌄 said, “but if they’ve got somebody that has the same makeup as Eli Manning, then they did well.”