The His & Hers crew explores why the Giants kept all their coaches around besides former coach Tom Coughlin. (1:30)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. –- With Ben McAdoo now leading the team and the coaching staff expected to remain mostly intact, John Mara knows what the perception might be.

But the New York Giants co-owner says former coach Tom Coughlin is not the scapegoat for the team's failures.

"The outside perception is what it is and I can't do much about that," Mara said after McAdoo was announced as head coach on Friday. "This is not about blaming Tom. This was an organizational failure on our part starting with me and working its way down. We all have to take some blame. Now it is up to us to turn it around."

Once again, Mara made it clear that the personnel decisions by the organization have to get better as he called the Giants' last Super Bowl, in 2011, "a distant memory."

"Where have we made mistakes in the draft?" Mara said. "Why have we missed on guys? Are our standards too rigid? Are they not rigid enough? Let's look at that and figure out what we need to improve. Do we need to make some changes? That will continue to be a discussion we have.

"Listen, I know what our roster looks like. I know [it] will have to get a hell of a lot better if we are going to put the fifth trophy in the case."

John Mara admitted the Giants have a lot of work to do. "I know what our roster looks like. I know (it) will have to get a hell of a lot better if we are going to put the fifth trophy in the case," he said. AP Photo/Julio Cortez

Mara discussed some of the angry letters he has received from Giants fans and pointed the finger at himself.

"Listen, I accept my share of the blame for what's going on," Mara said. "I have gotten a lot of love letters from our fans. One of them wrote me and said that the problem with the organization is 'sitting right in your chair.' OK.

"Another one put it a little more succinctly -- he said the fish stinks from the head down," Mara continued. "I take that personally and I accept my share. This is all under my watch. I know we need to get better as an organization. What gives me confidence is I know we have done it before and I believe that we have the right people here to do it again."

Mara acknowledged that the Philadelphia Eagles' coaching search played a factor in the Giants' speeding up their hiring process. With McAdoo interviewing in Philadelphia, the Giants wanted to move quickly after Hue Jackson turned down an interview with the Giants to accept the Cleveland Browns job.

Mara also weighed in on the Eagles' talking to Coughlin before the former Giants head coach took his name out of consideration. Coughlin stepped down as Giants coach last week.

"I am not going to lie: It would have bothered me a lot" had Coughlin ended up with the Giants' NFC East rival," Mara said. "I want him to be happy, but I certainly didn't want to see him happy in green."

Mara said quarterback Eli Manning spoke highly of McAdoo, the Giants' offensive coordinator the past two seasons, but that wasn't the deciding factor in maintaining continuity.

"It was a factor. but I think a lot of it has been overblown," Mara said. "[Manning] is smart and talented enough to adapt to any system, but I was certainly aware of that. I did speak to him. He was very high on Ben."

Mara said it was important to hear McAdoo talk about coaching Odell Beckham Jr. and helping the wide receiver mature and develop after his one-game suspension for clashing with Carolina Panthers cornerback Josh Norman. However, Mara said that was not a major turning point in deciding that there needed to be a change from Coughlin.

"[McAdoo] was upset at the way that transpired. He put a lot of the blame on himself; he realizes he should have stepped in and done something," Mara said of calming Beckham down. "But when you are an offensive coordinator and you got that play sheet in front of you, you are not always focused on situations going on."

"To me it was unacceptable," Mara added of Beckham's behavior. "[But] it has been a rough 3½ years and that was one thing that happened. It was something I wasn't happy with, but I can't say that was a major factor [in making a coaching change]."

McAdoo made an impression on Mara not long after he was hired as offensive coordinator two seasons ago. Mara liked what he saw on the practice field, how McAdoo has some "bark" to him when he doesn't like what he sees and that players respond to him.

"We will find out and we won't know that until once he starts coaching," Mara said of how good McAdoo can be. "But believe me. I thought about the Mike Tomlin scenario [in Pittsburgh] quite a bit. He came out of nowhere and is one of the best coaches out there. I think this guy has everything that he needs to be a successful head coach and we got to help him in getting better personnel."