Giants to discuss Brian Flores' Miami exit during head coach interview

New Giants general manager Joe Schoen and co-owner John Mara talked a lot on Wednesday about the need for Schoen and their next head coach to work well together, to communicate, and to be “aligned” in their philosophy.

So if former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores wants to convince them he fits that description, he’s got some explaining to do.

The 40-year-old Flores, who will interview for the Giants head coaching job on Thursday, is only available because he was surprisingly fired by Miami three weeks ago after a reported power struggle with Dolphins general manager Chris Grier. In fact, when Dolphins owner Stephen Ross fired Flores he even hinted at the trouble, saying in a statement that “key dynamics of our football organization weren't functioning at a level I want it to be.”

That seems like a huge red flag for the Giants, and it will absolutely be a huge topic of conversation when Flores arrives for his meeting with Schoen, Mara, and co-owner Steve Tisch.

“That’s certainly one of the things we’re going to discuss with Brian,” Mara said. “I discussed it with him briefly when I spoke to him a week ago. But we’re going to spend some time on that when he gets here.”

There were other issues with Flores too, according to reports, including an apparent rift with Dolphins franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. There are also concerns over what was a high rate of turnover on his coaching staff.

But the split with Grier will clearly be the most alarming thing for the Giants, especially after things began to deteriorate this past year between their former GM, Dave Gettleman, and their old head coach, Joe Judge. Even Mara conceded on Wednesday that “the communication hasn’t been the greatest in the building over the last couple of years,” and he promised Schoen will get it “straightened out.”

That could be tough with Flores, though, especially since Schoen and Flores don’t have a previous relationship. Not only that, Schoen worked closely with Grier for nine years in Miami, first as a scout and then as the assistant director of college scouting. Grier was the director of college scouting during that time and is one of the people Schoen thanked in his opening statement at his introductory press conference on Wednesday.

So Schoen will undoubtedly get an unvarnished picture of the difficulties Grier may have had working with Flores from his old boss and friend.

Flores is an otherwise attractive candidate, though. He went 24-25 in his three seasons with Miami and led them to their first back-to-back winning seasons in nearly 20 years. He also helped pull them out of a 1-7 start this season and led them to an 8-1 finish and nearly a playoff berth.

Mara became interested in Flores, a Brooklyn native, almost as soon as he was fired, according to a source. And Mara said that Flores was on the shortlist of all nine candidates he interviewed in his search for a GM. That, in fact, is why he called Flores before he hired Schoen.

“I saw he had been interviewing elsewhere, so I just wanted to let him know ‘Before you make a decision, just know that we have interest in you,’” Mara said. “‘Make whatever decision you feel like you need to make for you and your family, but just know that we do have interest in you and once I get the general manager search done we will get back to you.’”

Mara said he did speak briefly with Flores about his problems with Grier in Miami. When asked what Flores said, Mara said “I’m not going to go into that, but it’s obviously something that we’re going to have to discuss with him.”

As for Schoen, he said whomever the Giants hire will have to be someone he’s comfortable working with. If he senses that won’t happen with any candidate, he’ll have to move on to someone else.

“We’re going to be collaborative and we’re going to work together,” Schoen said. “It’s not going to be ‘It’s my way or the highway’ or anything like that. That doesn’t work. You’ve got to be in lockstep.

“You’re going to have hard conversations. You’re not always going to agree, but I think those discussions are very healthy. At the end of the day, you have to make the best decisions for the organization and when you come out of those rooms, you can’t hang onto it.”