Joe Schoen’s Tuesday sales job that his roster has “pieces in place” might have been convincing if the NFL didn’t track all 32 teams’ wins, losses and statistics.
When Giants ownership, Schoen and the front office sit up in their ivory tower long enough, away from the fray of actual results, they can probably convince themselves of anything with enough projections, hope and pats on each other’s backs.
But the truth is if Schoen is going to admit the Giants‘ 5-25 record in the past two years “starts with me” — and if he is going to acknowledge that the Giants “didn’t show up in all three phases” of Monday night’s massacre in New England — he cannot in good conscience turn around and claim that his players are much better than the product the team is putting on the field.
That’s basically what the Giants’ hot seat fourth-year GM said during his bye week press conference, though. His argument for staying for a fifth season into the final year of his initial contract was that the team’s talent is a good enough foundation; it just needs the right coach to “maximize” them.
“When you look at it individually, are there pieces? Yes,” Schoen said. “But we got to come together collectively as a group, and there’s 11 guys on the field that need to be doing the same thing. They need to be on the same page. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that. That starts with me, and that’s what we got to figure out. It’s not just talent.”
Even as Schoen made his argument, however, it was hard to imagine he actually believed what he was saying. He actually ran into a contradiction when explaining how much he had invested financially in this year’s defense, only to watch them fail to move the needle at all.
“Defensively, I believe we were 30th last year at this time,” Schoen said. “That’s with the addition [this year] of Abdul Carter, Paulson Adebo, Jevon Holland, Chauncey Golston, Roy Robertson-Harris, and we’re in that same area unfortunately.
“To say I expected that, no,” Schoen acknowledged. “But again, it starts with me. We’ve got to do a better job. I didn’t anticipate we would still be 30th in the league in defense with the additions of those players, but we are. And we’ve got to do a better job of execution. We’ve got to do a better job of finishing games, and I’ve got to do a better job with the personnel.”
Exactly: Schoen hasn’t done a good enough job with personnel.
That is the only conclusion to draw from a defense that is allowing a league-worst 5.8 yards per carry, a league-worst 154.2 rushing yards per game, 28.2 points (30th) and 385.8 yards (30th) per game.
Ten of the 11 Giants’ starters on Monday night’s Swiss Cheese defense were drafted or acquired by Schoen. The other is Dexter Lawrence, a two-time second-team All-Pro drafted by the previous regime.
Schoen said he is “tasked with trying to get this organization going back in the proper direction” and stressed that there is “a good young core to build around here.” But those are only acceptable comments from a first-year GM.
That is what Schoen was saying and tasked with in 2022. This is 2025.
He has been running the team for four years, and he’s still calling this a “build” — still trying to create a gray area between how much he has invested in the roster and how poorly it has performed on the field.
Offensively, Schoen sold Jaxson Dart as a “good young quarterback on a rookie contract,” a “good” left tackle in Andrew Thomas — who was drafted by the previous regime — top receiver Malik Nabers, a “good” running back room, left guard Jon Runyan, center John Michael Schmitz and the “flashes” of tight end Theo Johnson.
But the offense has only scored more than 20 points in two of the team’s last six games. The offensive line needs imminent replenishment at two to three positions. Schoen’s track record at drafting offensive linemen is horrendous. The running back room is average at best.
Nabers’ ACL tear and Cam Skattebo’s gruesome ankle and leg fracture invite a ton of uncertainty about who will even be on the field in 2026. Dart is being bombarded at the moment with internal and external doubt about his ability to stay healthy and safe, which could compromise his ability to play effectively.
And Mike Kafka’s first game coaching Dart since Brian Daboll’s firing was not a great start in demonstrating that different coaching is going to unlock something transcendent lying in wait.
Not to mention that Schoen has been in a premium position in three of the Giants’ four drafts, at the top of every round, and is still not only able to cherry pick at a handful of developing players rather than pointing proudly to several studs.
There was definitely some delusion in Schoen’s analysis on Tuesday, though.
When discussing how many leaders he has let out of the Giants’ building to the team’s detriment, he stressed that every decision allowed the Giants to acquire other players to help his priorities of rushing the passer, protecting the passer and getting a new franchise quarterback.
And he noted, when asked about Saquon Barkley: “If you bring back a running back, you don’t get [right tackle] Jermaine Eluemunor, you don’t get Jon Runyan. In order to be productive at some of those positions, it helps to have the other.”
It takes a special kind of ego to speak about letting Barkley leave for Philadelphia and lead the archrival Eagles to a Super Bowl as a worthy decision to land two average offensive linemen in free agency — and to throw in the accurate but petty dig about a worse Philly line leading to reduced Barkley production this season.
But that is the shell game Schoen plays. He’s good at it. If the NFL didn’t track wins, losses and stats, his smooth-talking might just work.
Even Schoen knows not to try to sell anything positive about his special teams unit, at least.
His investment in Graham Gano and mismanagement of the kicking situation, Younghoe Koo’s ridiculous non-field goal attempt, punter Jamie Gillan’s down season, Monday night’s Patriots punt return touchdown and running back Eric Gray’s presence as a returner — just to name a few failures in that process — have cost the Giants games and destabilized what should be a consistently reliable part of any functional team.
And the reality is that the Giants’ special teams unit — which Schoen has not been able to settle down in four years — is a microcosm of how the GM’s ineptitude translates to specific details on gameday that undercut the end results.
Eventually, when Schoen was pressed to identify his specific part in the losing — and not to simply address his accountability in generalities — the Giants’ GM reflected with some emotion.
“Well, I’ll just say this, nobody’s perfect, and the chances of me batting a thousand are gone because I’ve made mistakes, OK,” Schoen said. “Everybody’s going to make mistakes, and we’re going to get some things right. As long as you’re learning from those mistakes and you reflect on the process in place and where you went wrong and you can continue to get better, that’s what’s most important.
“I’m better today than I was four years ago when I got this job,” he added. “A year from now, God willing I’m standing here, I’m going to be better than I am today. And that’s all I can do. That’s all I can do.”
That led Schoen to acknowledge certain missteps along the way.
“Were there some things we did where we missed in our process or we strayed from what we believe in? There’s a chance that happened,” he said. “OK, lesson learned. Lesson learned, don’t make it again. But again, as you go through it, there have been a lot of decisions that have went right.
“Have I screwed up and have I made mistakes? Absolutely,” he said later. “Absolutely. But I’m not going to make the same mistake twice, and we’re going to continue to get better, and we’re going to look at everything: Coaching, coordinators, strength [and conditioning]. I mean, every single thing, every part of the organization.”
Not batting a thousand? No kidding. Schoen has a .120 winning percentage (3-22) in his last 25 games.
The strength and conditioning staff? How did they manage to catch a stray here?
See, this is the problem: Even when Schoen starts sounding like he’s taking accountability, a little finger pokes out and points elsewhere.
That’s how Daboll and defensive coordinator Shane Bowen got fired and held accountable for the Giants’ despicable operation while Schoen stays.
“I’m equally as- my hand’s in it just like Brian’s is,” the GM admitted. “And ownership made a decision to move on, and I’m gonna control what I can control and that’s to support Kafka … We’re gonna do everything we can to get our franchise back where it should be.”
Be clear: Schoen admitted that “we” made the decision to move on from Daboll. His hands are dirty there, too.
Now the only question is whether Schoen will keep his job when the season is over. Heck, it felt like he might have been on shaky ground on Tuesday when he showed up almost 40 minutes late to his own press conference.
When asked if any coaching candidate might want to bring their own GM to replace Schoen, he answered defiantly: “Yeah, the calls we’ve gotten, I think we’re gonna be able to fill the job.”
So was that confidence or sensitivity to a touchy subject?
Schoen did not say he had received any assurances from ownership about his job past the end of this season.
“Ownership will evaluate the entire football operation at the end of the season, as they should, and then we’ll go from there,” he said.
So there is still hope that ownership recognizes that being one of the worst teams in the NFL — and being the first team eliminated from the playoffs in the league the last two years — means that the players on the field aren’t good enough.
And that the GM who picked them is a better talker than he is an evaluator, which doesn’t get the job done in a league that tracks wins, losses and stats.
