The Giants are fortunate John Harbaugh signed that contract before Monday rolled around.
The Buffalo Bills’ firing of Sean McDermott opened one of the most intriguing jobs in the NFL.
The Giants have a deeper tradition to offer Harbaugh, 63, but the Bills have something most teams cannot offer:
Quarterback Josh Allen, last year’s NFL MVP — plus a new stadium the Bills are moving into this fall.
Harbaugh still might have chosen the Giants. Living in upstate New York isn’t for everyone and might not have been for Harbaugh.
Plus, Joe Schoen’s mentor, Bills GM Brandon Beane, not only survived McDermott’s firing but received a promotion.
So it doesn’t appear Harbaugh would have obtained the same amount of power and control in Buffalo that he now has in East Rutherford, N.J.
Still, if Harbaugh hadn’t signed his Giants contract prior to McDermott’s firing, he would have owed it to himself to at least investigate that opportunity.
By inheriting Allen, Harbaugh could have added a dramatic new chapter to the ongoing AFC quarterback debate of Lamar Jackson vs. Allen by switching sides in the polarizing MVP saga.
Not to mention that going from one future Hall of Fame quarterback to another would have ensured Harbaugh a floor of victories annually that might have kept him coaching in this league for a total of 30 years.
Every additional attractive coaching vacancy would have increased Harbaugh’s leverage even further past the five-year, $100 million contract he ended up signing with the Giants.
As it is, the Giants and Harbaugh now are focused on setting a new course at Tuesday’s introductory press conference at Quest Diagnostics Training Center across the parking lot from MetLife Stadium.
Harbaugh will have an opportunity to deliver a message to the fan base and frame his vision for the Giants franchise’s future.
It is unlikely he will dive into too many details about how he’ll proceed in the short term, but one curiosity will be what changes he is making to key areas of the building from the training staff to strength staff to video department and public relations — and how quickly he will move to make them.
Schoen’s role is now minimized in the organization’s new power structure, so anything Harbaugh says about player characteristics he values also will be noteworthy.
Because he will not just be coaching this team; he will be building it.
And Harbaugh is going to have to get to work immediately to prepare for free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft while juggling the structural shift inside 1925 Giants Drive.
Press conferences like these are always opportunities for ownership to step into the spotlight in some fashion, as well.
So it will be interesting to see and/or hear from John Mara, Steve Tisch and Chris Mara, and to find out if there is any official announcement on the power structure above Harbaugh, with Chris Mara’s increased involvement now widely understood.
What Harbaugh’s official introduction on Tuesday simply will mean, though, is hope for a better future for an organization that hasn’t had much of it in recent years.
There were so many reasons for this to fall through.
It almost did.
The 48-hour delay and 11th-hour negotiation of a final contract, and the decision to give Harbaugh final say in the organization and shift power out of Schoen’s hands, was challenging and uncomfortable for the Giants.
If the Bills had lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Wild Card round, and Buffalo had been pursuing Harbaugh when his Giants talks hit that snag, he might not even be standing here in New Jersey on Tuesday.
But he is. That’s what matters now. In an NFL where every division but one (the NFC North) has seen a head coach fired this cycle, with 10 vacancies out of 32 teams, the Giants landed the candidate they viewed as the best fit for them.
And they don’t have to live in the frightening world of ‘what ifs’ that Monday’s high-profile firing of McDermott could have created.
