As the final day of the 2025-26 NFL regular season dawns, it appears that the New York Giants are going to retain embattled general manager Joe Schoen. Report after report in recent days has indicated that despite overseeing a team that has gone 12-38 since the beginning of the 2023 season that is the choice the Giants intend to make.
Dianna Russini of The Athletic joined a chorus on NFL insiders reporting similar information when she wrote on Saturday that Schoen “appears to be safe for now.”
That will not be a popular decision with many in the Giants’ fan base and media.
I certainly understand why. There has been too much losing the last three seasons. The GM’s personnel miscues, and maybe his desire to hire Brian Daboll as head coach in 2022 instead of Brian Flores, have contributed.
The Giants, though, appear willing to ride with Schoen. At least a little bit longer.
It is a decision I can understand. I might even go so far as to say that it is the right decision. Probably. Until I change my mind. No, seriously, I think that given where they are the shortest path to success for the Giants likely involves keeping Schoen and pairing him with the right coach.
If you believe, as ownership clearly indicated it does when they fired Daboll and announced that Schoen would lead the search for a new coach, there is talent on the roster that has not been maximized, that’s an argument for keeping Schoen.
If you believe, as I do, that the Giants should have been somewhere around .500 this year, you likely believe the right coach and a few more pieces can turn them into the 2026 version of this year’s Chicago Bears. That, too, is an argument for keeping Schoen.
What you should not want, in my view, is a complete tear down. That is what you are almost certainly going to get if you fire the GM. You are going to get a completely rebuilt front office and scouting staff. You are going to get a torn down and rebuilt roster. All of that will take a few seasons to implement. Do you want to waste Jaxson Dart’s rookie contract doing that?
I still maintain that the Giants have been through too much upheaval since forcing Tom Coughlin out the door after the 2015 season. Much of that, of course, has been due to their own bad choices.
Still, with Dart, Malik Nabers, Cam Skattebo and some of the other pieces they have I believe the Giants are at a place where they should want to build upon what they have rather than blow it up, maybe select a different quarterback, send Nabers, Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns and anyone else other teams would take packing and start over.
What they have to do is GET THE RIGHT COACH.
Something Ralph Vacchiano of FOX Sports, a one-time Giants beat writer, wrote in a recent column, captures the way I feel pretty well:
“ … it [keeping Schoen] would be the right move for a franchise that desperately needs stability. The Giants just need to pair Schoen with the right, experienced coach.
That may be where this is headed, too. Though the Giants owners haven’t specifically said Schoen will return in 2026, multiple team sources said that’s the internal expectation. And while the coaching search (which will be led by Schoen) is only in its infancy, another team source told me that previous head coaching experience “isn’t a necessity, but it’s a high priority for some.”
There’s going to be enormous pressure to win there — both on Joe, if they keep him, and on the owners,” an NFL executive who recently spoke to Giants officials told me. “The last thing they need is another coach learning on the job.”
They also don’t need to start over from scratch, again — something they’ve gotten all too familiar with in the decade since they shoved Tom Coughlin out the door. A franchise once lauded for its stability has cycled through four GMs and six head coaches in the past 10 seasons. That constant turmoil is a big reason why the Giants are 53-106-1 in that span.
Was Brian Daboll the biggest problem with the Giants? New York will find out if it elects to keep GM Joe Schoen. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
It’s also why they turned to Schoen, an outsider, when they hired him in 2022 to fix their floundering franchise. And he and his hand-picked head coach had immediate success with a 9-7-1 record and an unexpected run to the playoffs in their first season.
Obviously, the results since haven’t been good. But GMs shouldn’t be on the same win-now plan as the coaches they hire. They’re in charge of a bigger picture, with one eye always on a better future. And while the results might not make it obvious, there certainly are signs that the Giants’ future is bright.
“It takes time to build a program,” a former NFL general manager told me. “Nobody wants to hear that anymore, but it’s still true. We used to say it takes at least five years to really see what a GM can do, to really have his program in place. And sometimes it takes at least one coaching change, too.
“If you’re starting over every three or four years, you end up absolutely nowhere.”
The bottom line for a GM is the won-loss record, but there are many more facets to the job than drafting players and signing free agents. Dan Hatman of The Scouting Academy recently posted Part 1 of a two-part look at the role of a general manager.
It is worth the time if you want to learn the various things that go into the job of a GM, and what those around the league think it takes to be a good one.
Can the Giants make it work if Schoen stays and they hire another coach, or is that doomed to fail? I am generally a fan of general manager and head coach on the same timeline, but the strategy the Giants would be attempting to employ can work, and there are some teams around the league proving it.
- Les Snead had five straight losing seasons and a 31-48-1 record as GM of the Los Angeles Rams until the Rams hired Sean McVay in 2017. The rams have been to two Super Bowls, winning once and this will be their seventh playoff appearance in nine years with McVay.
- George Paton was 20-31 with three losing seasons as general manager of the Denver Broncos before the Broncos landed Sean Payton as their head coach.
- Ryan Poles was 15-36 in three seasons as GM of the Chicago Bears. With Ben Johnson as head coach, the Bears are 11-5 and heading to the playoffs.
The key is getting the right coach.
Maybe that could be a first-timer like Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, or even Denver Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb.
I lean, though, toward agreeing with the NFL executive who told Vacchiano the Giants should not be looking to hire a head coach who has to learn on the job. A veteran coach who has had success as a head coach, or at least been around a lot of success as an assistant, is more likely to hit the ground running. More likely to be able to establish instant credibility — both in the locker room and with the various front office voices who will need to be swayed to give the coach the roster he believes he can win with.
That’s why I would not waste any time contacting Kevin Stefanski if the Cleveland Browns let him go. Jim Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin, too. It’s why Mike McCarthy is someone the Giants need to at least speak to. It’s why the more I think about it a pairing of Vance Joseph, a great defensive coach with prior head-coaching experience, and Webb as offensive coordinator has some appeal.
I don’t know who the right head coach is. I don’t know any of these men personally and I won’t be involved in interviewing them, so I can’t know that. I do know that I believe keeping Schoen can work.
It’s all about getting the right coach.
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