INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen spoke to media at different times on Tuesday. What each would say about the other, and about a working relationship that sees Harbaugh as the commander and Schoen as a lieutenant, was the biggest curiosity during the first full day at the NFL Scouting Combine.
‘I’m still the general manager’
It has been clear since the day Harbaugh was hired that the Giants’ organizational structure has changed. Harbaugh reports to ownership rather than to Schoen, an arrangement Harbaugh insisted upon and that the Giants never previously had.
As an equal on paper, Harbaugh has flexed a massive amount of muscle in the early weeks of his tenure, re-creating the Giants in a way that reflects his values and the people he wants to work with.
One of those changes was hiring Dawn Aponte as Senior Vice President of Football Operations and Strategy, and having Aponte report to Harbaugh rather than Schoen.
Harbaugh having greater control over more areas of the organization than any other Giants’ coach, and the reality that Aponte reports to Harbaugh, give the impression that Schoen’s role has been marginalized and that he is no longer the final decision-maker.
Schoen bristled on Tuesday at the notion that certain areas of responsibility, like contracts, were perhaps no longer his.
“I’m still the general manager of the team and my role has not changed,” Schoen said. “I’m still tasked with leading the entire football operation. And we’re going to work in collaboration like most good teams do.
“And it’s going to be collaborative. Everybody’s going to have their role, but there’s constant communication between Dawn, Coach Harbaugh, myself in terms of how we’re going to build the football operation. And then how we’re going to execute the draft, trades, free agency, contract signings, coaching staff, whatever it may be. We’re going to work in collaboration together. We’re aligned in that, and it’s been going really good so far.”
Harbaugh, too, pushed the collaboration narrative.
“It’s funny because I keep saying it and it’s hard to put your arms around it from the outside, but it is truly a collaboration. Really what it is at the end of the day is you work together to build a team,” Harbaugh said. “The term that I came up with with Ozzie [Newsome, former Baltimore Ravens GM] after we worked together for a couple of years was that we figured out how to agree to agree.
“We had a lot of conversations about players and who we liked, who we didn’t like, who we wanted, who I wanted, how they ranked, who we might take or not take. Ozzie was picking the players so sometimes I was making the case but other times he was making the case to me because he didn’t want to take somebody that the coach didn’t want and I didn’t want. We could never settle on we agree or disagree. We had to agree to agree on who we were taking. The point is that’s the same thing here. That’s what we’ll be doing here.”
Schoen said he and Harbaugh are trying to marry the way things were done in Baltimore with the way they have been during his time with the Giants.
“Coach and I’s communication has been great. Again, when you got here, it’s the first time you’re going through everything together,” Schoen said. “So, yeah, how did you guys do this in Baltimore? Okay, this is how we did it. Okay, we’re doing that exactly the same.
“We don’t have all the answers. There’s tweaks that we can make in our process that will make us better, and I’m open to that. So, we’ve got a lot of communication up to this point. He’s really liked the process that we currently have. We’ve tweaked a couple things, but the communication has been great. Ultimately, we’re just trying to do what’s best for the Giants, whatever part of the process it is.”
Dawn Aponte ‘makes us better’
Why did the Giants hire Dawn Aponte to replace Kevin Abrams?
“To be the very best we can be,” Harbaugh said. “It was an opportunity. I’ve known Dawn for many years through the league circles and have worked with her on different projects and things like that. Nothing but the utmost respect for her.
“When it became apparent that she was interested in this particular job it was obvious that she was the perfect fit for what we were trying to do.
“She makes us better. She gives us a chance to be our very best.”
The part of hiring Aponte that has raised eyebrows is that she reports to Harbaugh and not Schoen. So, even though she is below Schoen on an organization chart, her power is apparent.
Why was Aponte reporting to him important to Harbaugh?
“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s important in any other way than just trying to figure out how we want to operate and be our best,” Harbaugh said. “It’s like building your team. You got players, you try to build your schemes around who you have. Make it work the best way it’s going to work. So we want our plays to fit our guys.
“I think we want our operation format to fit the people that we have. So Joe and I were figuring everything out. Not just Joe and I, but also John, Chris [Mara], everybody involved. But mainly us. How do we want to operate? Who do we want to put in charge of what? Who do we want to talk to who? What’s the best way to make it work? I’m sure it will always be evolving for what’s best at any given time. We organized it the way we organized it because we felt like this is the best way to be effective.”
Schoen worked with Aponte with the Miami Dolphins.
“She’s a tremendous resource with a lot of experience. So I will lean on Dawn in terms of her expertise and her background when I see fit. So, again, I see her as a tremendous resource with her salary cap background,” Schoen said.
“Basically, it’s an easy transition because it’s a lot of what Kevin Abrams was doing, if you guys remember what Kevin’s role was. So it’s essentially the same. Again, a different skill set maybe and a different background than what Kevin has, so some different strengths and weaknesses.
“But just a really good hire for us, and she’s been a tremendous asset thus far.”
“She’s a tremendous resource with a lot of experience. So I will lean on Dawn in terms of her expertise and her background when I see fit. So, again, I see her as a tremendous resource, again, with her salary cap background.
Basically, it’s an easy transition because it’s a lot of what Kevin Abrams was doing, if you guys remember what Kevin’s role was. So it’s essentially the same. Again, a different skill set maybe and a different background than what Kevin has, so some different strengths and weaknesses.
But just a really good hire for us, and she’s been a tremendous asset thus far.
In addition to salary cap and contract negotiation duties, the Giants’ video and analytics departments will also report to Aponte.
“It’s integration. The thing that you come to understand over all these years, it’s probably true for really any organization, that you’ve got to be aligned and you’ve got to be integrated. And everybody’s got to be working together,” Harbaugh said. “There’s got to be a shared understanding, a vision of what you’re trying to accomplish. There’s got to be a shared understanding of who you are, what you stand for, what the values are, of how we’re going to get there, what our plans are. That takes constant communication.
“It’s got to be flat. Everybody’s got to be working together. The idea that there’s too much hierarchy or silos or separate fences and things like that just can’t be a part of it. Not in football, not in anything. So someone like Dawn helps Joe and I, the three of us really, working together to make sure that all of our systems are integrated.”
Steve Tisch is radioactive
Neither Harbaugh nor Schoen wanted to go anywhere near talking about the Giants’ co-owner’s involvement in the Epstein files.
“Steve released a statement a few weeks ago about the regret. So I’m just going to leave it at that. I’m not going to comment anymore on that,” Schoen said.
Harbaugh, asked about Tisch, talked about football.
“Have great respect for the ownership. All the people I’ve gotten to meet, John and Steve and Chris Mara and John Tisch and Carolyn Tisch and the Koch family have been nothing but great conversations, great interactions,” Harbaugh said. “And we’ve been talking about the business of football, you know, the business of building our team, the business of putting staffs together, all the things that we’re talking about with the integration that you just asked about.”
Pressed on it, Harbaugh mostly parroted Schoen’s answer:
“Steve put out a statement where he expressed his regret. That’s where it stands for me. That’s where I’m at.”
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‘Too many cooks in the kitchen’
There are four coaches on the Giants’ offensive staff who have been NFL play-callers — offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Brian Callahan, senior offensive assistant Greg Roman, and tight ends coach Tim Kelly. Nagy and Callahan have been NFL head coaches.
As such, I asked Harbaugh about the perceptions that there might be “too many cooks in the kitchen” for the Giants on offense. How would he get all of those experienced offensive coaches to stay in their lanes.
“That’s part of organizing how you want to operate. I don’t think it really is determined by who’s had what experience so much as who they are as people and coaches and how they fit together,” Harbaugh said. “A big part of my job is to make sure that we do have alignment that way and that we are operating in a way that is efficient and effective and is together. Not just saying, okay, we’re going to collaborate and walking away. How are we going to organize our process?”
Harbaugh went further, elaborating on something he believes helped make him successful in Baltimore.
“System building to me is really important,” he said. “One of the systems is the plays and the way the offense operates. Another part of the system is how you operate the game planning part. How you operate practices. How you operate installing and teaching and preparing your guys. If we’re really intentional about all that, we should be organizing a system that all those play caller guys, all those great minds we have, are working together.
“How does that work? What do we do first? What do we do second? Who talks to who when?
“All those things are organized in a way that is intentional so that we can at the end of the day have the best game plan when we go on the field. Hopefully you see it in the way the guys play because we’ve organized it in a good way.”
Harbaugh’s new colors
After 18 Combines as Ravens’ coach, Harbaugh was in new threads this time when he stepped to the podium. How different is the experience being head coach of the Giants for the first time?
“It’s exciting.You know, it’s fun. I really feel energized. Always do,” Harbaugh said. “Whenever you come to Indy, you feel energized. I mean, you get a chance to get around. You see the players.You have the interviews. You see the coaches. You see the GMs. You kind of size up your competition. I mean, let’s be honest. You know, it’s competitive. You know, and you get a chance to kind of take a look at who’s doing what and how they’re trying to do it. So, that never changes.
“I’m excited about it. I mean, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to represent the New York Giants. And we’re just really going to work.”
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