Ben McAdoo May Be Giants New Head Coach

Ben McAdoo, one of the internal favorites to replace Tom Coughlin, is closing in on a deal to become the 17th head coach in New York Giants history, multiple sources confirmed Wednesday night to ESPN.

An announcement could come as early as Thursday. If McAdoo ultimately gets the Giants' head-coaching job, Steve Spagnuolo would be retained as the team's defensive coordinator, a league source told ESPN's Ed Werder.

Former Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin is among the favorites to join McAdoo's staff as offensive coordinator, sources told ESPN. McAdoo and Philbin worked together in Green Bay under Mike McCarthy.

McAdoo has been the Giants' offensive coordinator for the past two seasons, his only two seasons ever as a coordinator. He never has been a head coach.

McAdoo has earned praise for his work with quarterback Eli Manning, who has thrown 65 touchdowns and 28 interceptions and completed 62.8 percent of his passes the past two seasons.

"Excited for Coach McAdoo," Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara said in a text to The Associated Press. "I figured him or Spagz [Spagnuolo] would have been a great pick. I'm sure his players and the fans are all excited."

McAdoo, 38, would be the NFL's second-youngest coach. Adam Gase, the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator who was hired by the Dolphins, is 37.

Former Nebraska Star Phillips Found Dead

 Lawrence Phillips, a star running back at Nebraska and first-round NFL draft pick whose pro career quickly unraveled amid disciplinary problems, was found dead in his California prison cell on Wednesday, and officials said they suspect suicide.

Guards at Kern Valley State Prison found Phillips, 40, unresponsive, and he was taken to an outside hospital. He was pronounced dead at about 1:30 a.m., the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

Phillips went to prison in 2008 on a sentence of more than 31 years after he was convicted of twice choking his girlfriend in 2005 in San Diego and of driving his car into three teens later that year after a pickup football game in Los Angeles.

He had been housed alone in a segregation cell since April 2015 after he was suspected of killing his cellmate. A Kern County judge had ruled Tuesday that there was enough evidence to try Phillips in the death of Damion Soward, 37, the cousin of former University of Southern California and NFL wide receiver R. Jay Soward.

Coincidentally, a court-appointed suicide prevention expert commended the state corrections department in a report Wednesday for recent steps it has taken to combat what has been a chronic problem. Lindsay Hayes said the number of suicides and the suicide rate appeared to have decreased slightly during the last two years. However, he noted several continuing problems with suicide prevention efforts at the prison where Phillips died.

Phillips was checked twice an hour because he was in a segregation unit. The in-custody death triggers an investigation, a review by the federal court-appointed official who controls the prison medical system, and, if it is ruled a suicide, oversight by federal officials and lawyers involved in a long-running lawsuit over the care of mentally ill inmates.