Giants coaching chaos prompts former player to ask an unthinkable question

The 2-8 New York Giants are plummeting right now, and the 7-2 Los Angeles Rams are not. The Giants made the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, plus landed their franchise quarterback in Round 1 of the same draft. And yet, at the midpoint of the 2025 NFL season, they just fired their head coach.

Leashes for head coaches to turn things around quickly are getting shorter and shorter. Head coach Brian Daboll is the second head coach to be fired in 2025, after the Tennessee Titans fired head coach Brian Callahan after Week 6. The move, while not unwarranted, prompted former Giants guard Justin Pugh to ask the unthinkable question on social media:

"What would a trade for (Rams head coach Sean) McVay look like?"

As Los Angeles improves this season, the incubation chamber for future NFL head coaches heats up as well. The lull of the team's success since 2022 had satiated the appetite for McVay understudies as future head coaches. But Justin Pugh's social media blurb is a clear indication that the dinner bell just rang.

LA coaches are back on the NFL menu at the end of 2025.

Which Rams coaches might be poached at the end of 2025?

The bittersweet aftertaste of success is something that fans are all too familiar with. Success in one year means dramatic coaching changes the following season. Right now, the team's coaching staff is ripe with head coaching candidates. These are just a few of the top candidates:

DC Chris Shula

If the defense's performance this year does not wow NFL teams, the opportunity to land the name Shula as a head coach will. Chris Shula only needed his second season to march his defense to among the NFL's best this season. In the process, he has inked his name on the short list of head coaching candidates for 2025.

OC Mike LaFleur

While the performance of LA's offense since hiring Mike LaFleur as offensive coordinator has been underwhelming before this season, 2025 is completely different. Perhaps it needed time to refine, but the team's heavy usage of tight ends this year has LaFleur's fingerprints all over it. And if a team cannot pry Sean McVay from the Rams (they can't), then the offensive coordinator may become the next best thing.

Assistant HC Aubrey Pleasant

When Coach Aubrey Pleasant was fired from the Detroit Lions, his candidacy for a head coaching role took a hit. But his ability to coach up defensive backs in this defense has been very impressive. Of particular note, Washington Commanders' castaway cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr. has turned the corner after struggling as a starter earlier this season.

If Chris Shula is hired away, Pleasant is a great DC-on-deck. Unless he is hired away as well.

Pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase

Every year, there is one guy on LA's coaching staff who surprises fans with his popularity in the NFL. Right now, that guy is Nate Scheelhaase, the team's pass game coordinator. While the jump to head coach is a reach, don't discount the popularity of a McVay padawan to NFL teams. Scheelhaase is a rapidly rising NFL star,

NFL teams love to clip and graft coaches from Los Angeles into their own organization, and the surging success in 2025 places the Horns as a superstore for future NFL head coaches. Is the yellow and gold at risk of losing McVay to another NFL team? Not a chance.

But the appetite for McVay-led coaches has never been higher in several years. Keep these coaches' names on your radar at season's end.

And thanks for reading.