Getty The New York Giants huddle on offense.
When an NFL team makes the playoffs, it spotlights other coaches within the organization for other opportunities outside of their current situation.
Both offensive coordinators, Eric Bieniemy and Shane Steichen, from the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, were hired by new teams after their successful seasons in 2022. The Eagles also lost their defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, the latest head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
The New York Giants made the playoffs for the first time since 2016, so the spotlight was burning bright on the Big Apple all season. Other teams took notice. Giants’ coordinators Mike Kafka and Wink Martindale even received head coaching consideration before the teams removed them from consideration.
Both men are returning to the Giants for 2023, but one member of the offensive coaching staff will be following one of the coaches mentioned, who recently went to the Super Bowl.
According to Art Stapleton of NorthJersey.com, “assistant offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. has accepted the job as the offensive line coach of the Colts.”
The 2022 season was Sparano Jr’s first season with New York after spending the previous year with the Carolina Panthers in the same role and various coaching duties dating back to 2010.
Offensive line coach Bobby Johnson and Sparano Jr. helped Giants running back Saquon Barkley have a career season finishing with rushing for over 1,300 yards and ten touchdowns. However, their most considerable success was developing left tackle Andrew Thomas to become an elite player, ending his season with second-team All-Pro honors.
Rookie right tackle Evan Neal had his ups and downs in the 13 games he played, but Pro Football Focus still graded him out in the 94th percentile in pass-blocking efficiency.
With a rotation of players and injuries, Sparano Jr. helped guide the Giants’ offensive line to be PFF’s 14th-ranked line in run blocking and 24th-ranked line in pass blocking among all NFL teams.
The Sparano Legacy In The NFL
If the last name sounds familiar, Tony Sparano Sr. coached in the NFL for a long-time. After being in the college ranks from 1984 to 1998, Sparano Sr. got his first opportunity at the NFL level with the Cleveland Browns in offensive quality control.
At age 47, Sparano Sr. became a first-time head coach with the Miami Dolphins. In his inaugural season in South Beach, he led the team to an 11-5 record that ended with placing first in the division and heading to the playoffs.
Unfortunately, the Miami coach could never duplicate his success, and he was fired after Week 14 in 2011. Sparano Sr. would get one more opportunity as head coach of the then-Oakland Raiders in 2014 but would finish with a 3-9 record. He would conclude his coaching career as the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive line coach in 2016 and 2017.
Today we joined the @Vikings in honoring the late Tony Sparano.
Honorary captains for today’s game were his wife, daughter, and son and Jaguars assistant offensive line coach, Tony Sparano Jr.
Sparano Sr. passed away at 56 in July of 2018, leaving his son to continue his legacy as a highly respected coach in the NFL.
After his passing before the 2018 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars played the Vikings during a preseason game in which they named the entire Sparano family honorary captains for the coin toss. Sparano Jr. was the assistant offensive line coach in Jacksonville at the time.
The former Giants assistant o-line coach joins Colts running back coach DeAndre Smith, who held the same position in New York in 2022. The Giants are looking to fill Sparano Jr’s vacancy quickly as they head to Indianapolis for the NFL Combine.