The New York Giants are playing out the string of yet another lost season, a regular occurrence for New York over the last 15 years.
A year from now, though, as we enter the December stretch of key games around the NFL that will determine the NFL playoff picture, can the Giants be one of those teams that engineers a major turnaround?
Can they be the New England Patriots, who are 11-2 and headed toward the top seed in the AFC players, after a 4-13 2024 season? Can they be the Chicago Bears, currently 9-3 after going 15-36 combined over the previous three seasons?
Can they have a turnaround like the 2024 Washington Commanders did, going from 4-14 to winning the NFC East with a 12-5 record?
If they get the right coach, who brings in the right staff, establishes the right culture, and helps the GM identify the right pieces to add to the roster, the absolutely can.
The Patriots hired Mike Vrabel. Ben Johnson has been the biggest reason for the turnaround in Chicago. Dan Quinn was the right coach at the right time in Washington. Sean Payton has been the key to the turnaround in Denver the past two seasons. DeMeco Ryans took over a Houston Texans team that had won 11 games in three seasons and won back-to-back AFC South titles.
All of those teams also have the right quarterback. With Jaxson Dart, there is a good chance the Giants have that piece in place.
The view here is that the Giants can make a similar leap. If they get this coaching hire right.
I don’t know who that coach is.
There is suddenly a drum beat for the Giants to call Curt Cignetti and see if he will come to the NFL and to the Giants after turning around the Indiana program and winning a Big 10 title in just two years. Cignetti, though, is 64 and has never coached in the NFL. So, maybe hold the phone on that one.
Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers or Kevin Stefanski of the Cleveland Browns if they get let go? Maybe.
Mike Kafka? Maybe.
A currently available guy like Mike McCarthy? Maybe.
A highly-regarded assistant who would be a first-time coach like Chris Shula, Lou Anarumo, or Jeff Hafley? Maybe.
Steve Spagnuolo, who know the Giants, knows defense, and knows winning, but flopped in first try at being a head coach? Maybe.
A college coach like Marcus Freeman? Maybe.
Right now, I don’t know who wants the job. Or, who will actually be available.
What I do know is it is incredibly difficult to find the right guy and match him with the right team. The Giants are a great example.
There were good reasons to hire Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, and Brian Daboll after the Giants moved on from two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Tom Coughlin. Each decision ultimately failed.
Look around the NFL. There are annually a half-dozen or so openings, and more teams than that whose fans think their head-coaching job should be open.
In my view, the biggest reason is that owners and general managers really aren’t sure what they are looking for. Owners get swayed by the hot coordinator with the high-flying offense or dominant defense from whatever team is the flavor of the month in the NFL that year. GMs, because it is human nature to want something comfortable, look first to their list of people they have relationships with and have worked successfully with in the past.
Neither of those is, in my view, what is important.
The ability lead men is what is important. I have said this in a variety of forums recently. An NFL locker is filled with 70 or so players who are mostly alpha males, are well-compensated for what they do, and have in many cases been coddled and told how wonderful they are for most of their lives because of their athletic ability.
The most important ability an NFL coach has is not building a fancy offensive or defensive scheme. It is the ability to stand in front of a room of egotistical men, get their attention, set a standard, enforce that standard, and get those men to do what is being asked in the name of something bigger than themselves.
That is leadership.
Coughlin had it. Bill Parcells had it. Guys like Vrabel and Dan Campbell have it.
The Giants need it. If they get it, a year from now we might be buzzing about the Giants the way people are buzzing about the Bears and Patriots.
Will Joe Schoen be a part of that?
Just because ownership did not fire Schoen as GM when it sent former head coach Brian Daboll packing, and just because it was said that Schoen will lead the search for a new coach, does not mean Schoen’s job is secure beyond the end of the season.
There are many ways things could still turn out. Schoen could be fired before the Giants start interviewing candidates. He could be ousted if the coach the Giants ultimately want feels the need to bring a preferred GM with him. Or, he could stay.
CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones recently made a case for why Schoen could stay.
First, I agree with Jones that there was “no chance” Schoen could win his much-ridiculed bye week press conference.
Here is more of what Jones wrote:
Could Mara change his mind at the end of the season and fire Schoen? Of course he could. Joe Judge wasn’t fired until he talked his way out of the job, opting to lose the press conference after that Bears game toward the end of the 2021 season.
But sources say the sense is nothing has yet changed. Naturally, some more competitive games down the stretch would help everyone’s case there (home vs. the Commanders, Vikings and Cowboys, plus a road trip to Las Vegas, remain).
There’s also the notion that Schoen could lose his job only if Mara’s top head-coach candidate says he will only take the job if Schoen isn’t there. We saw a version of that play out last year in Jacksonville when Shad Khan couldn’t secure anyone’s services while Trent Baalke remained as GM. But sources across the league have spoken highly of Schoen and how great he is to work with.
The Giants head coaching job could be the best on the market this cycle, highlighted by the presence of quarterback Jaxson Dart. I don’t get the sense coaching candidates will balk, if you will, at working with Schoen. Plus, he’s only under contract through the 2026 season. So if it doesn’t work, that coach will likely be part of the group choosing the next GM anyway.
To me, the last part is the important part. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be a belief that coaches will not want to work with Schoen. There is also the idea that if it’s clear the relationship isn’t going to work, Schoen could be removed after a year. Ideal? No, but it allows wiggle room.
I 100% understand that Schoen has made mistakes. Too many mistakes. He does, too. He knows that the 2022 playoff berth caused him to make some short-term decisions that ended up not being in the best interests of the franchise. He knows too many of his draft picks and free agent signings have not produced as intended.
There is a flip side, though. Whatever mistakes have been made, the Giants were good enough to build five double-digit leads this season, most of those against really good teams, that they were not able to hold. Most of that was because of an under-performing, poorly coached defense with a coordinator hired by Daboll.
If you believe the Giants are close to a turnaround, it seems counter-productive to bang the table for firing Schoen. And, no, I’m not defending the record or excusing the mistakes.
We have seen GMs who were initially unsuccessful, like Les Snead with the Rams, Ryan Poles with the Bears and George Paton with the Broncos, succeed once the right coach was put in place.
The Giants appear to have their quarterback. They have Malik Nabers. The time is now to capitalize on that, and on what else they do have to build with. Bringing in a new general manager almost always ends in a tear down of roster, the front office and the scouting department that, while it may lead to good things eventually, will cost time.
There is a window to capitalize on right now with Dart and Nabers on rookie contracts. Maybe, just maybe, that could work in Schoen’s favor.
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