Possible Pilfery?

By the time the dust settles, I think the number of NFL coaching vacancies will be high enough to virtually guarantee that the Giants lose a coordinator this offseason. According to Ralph Vacchiano, the Lions, Rams, Browns and Jets have all asked or will ask for permission to speak with Steve Spagnuolo and the Raiders (at least) want to talk to Kevin Gilbride.

Does this add to the urgency of this year's playoff run? We've seen the Giants succeed while missing pretty significant pieces on the field, but is it really the schemes and play calls of the coordinators that have been driving the Giants recent run of success?

Ed Valentine of Big Blue View, looks at some possible replacements for Spags, should he depart for his own gig. He comes up with two guys already on the staff, Bill Sheridan (LB Coach), and Peter Giunta (Secondary Coach) and two recently fired NFL coaches with defensive resumes and Giants ties, Romeo Crennel and Mike Nolan.

Spagnulo's scheme seems to be crafted perfectly fit the talent on the team, so it would make sense to promote someone from within, who has better knowledge of the scheme to begin with. On the other hand guys like Crennel and Nolan have leveraged their past success as D-Coordinators in head coaching positions and could probably still be successful with the talent on the Giants' roster.

Only time will tell how much of a hit the Giants will take next season when their staff is pillaged by the dregs of the league. Maybe, one of the reasons the NFL has greater parity than the MLB has less to do with the salary cap, and more to do with the fact that coaching is actually important, and everytime a team has sustained success, the rest of the league trips over themselves to steal their coordinators.

Update: 11:40AM -

Wow. Robert Boland of The National Football Post has an incredibly comprehensive breakdown of actual as well as possible head coaching vacancies and potential candidates from each team.