Tom Coughlin back to work in NFL, for now

Former Jaguars coach, exec advising new Panthers’ coach

It didn’t take long for Tom Coughlin to pick up some NFL work after being fired by the Jaguars.

According to NFL.com, Coughlin is advising new Panthers coach Matt Rhule as he takes over in Charlotte.

Rhule worked under Coughlin one season with the Giants and says he learned a lot from Coughlin during that season. It will be interesting to see if Coughlin has an influence on the guys Rhule will hire on his staff for the first year.

Rhule told the Rap Sheet and Friends podcast that he learned about how to connect with players with big personalities in his season with the Giants.

“Yeah, I think I took a lot,” Rhule said. “I think what was really key is that year was right before I was head coach. And so as I went to be the head coach at Temple, I tried to apply all the things that I had learned from Tom. I thought coach Coughlin was amazing at his ability to get his message across to the entire team by visiting with one guy at a time. We had some personalities, some great players on that team -- [Jason Pierre-Paul], Justin Tuck, Eli Manning, Ahmad Bradshaw. I thought Tom did a great job of going to those guys and understanding that they were probably influencers on the team and making sure the message was getting out there.”

After being let go by the Giants, Coughlin spent three seasons as the Jaguars’ executive vice president for football operations. He was fired in December after an NFL email surfaced pointing out that a quarter of all complaints filed with the NFL Players Association came from Jacksonville.