Giants fans would be better off putting their phones down and taking a walk. Thursday would have been a good day to shut off social media and go outside.
The Miami Dolphins fired head coach Mike McDaniel, increasing the likelihood that John Harbaugh could choose South Beach over the Big Apple. And the Giants’ next move was to … request a head coaching interview with Denver Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi.
What an inspiration: Hey, we might not get our No. 1 target. So here is another one of Joe Schoen’s buddies from the Miami Dolphins, who we’re interviewing because he’s from New Jersey, knows our GM and beat the Giants as the Saints’ interim head coach, 14-11, late in the 2024 season.
Forgot about that loss, didn’t you? They all count — to everyone outside the building, anyway.
Seriously, Giants fans: Turn off your phone. And turn the TV on instead.
Because all of the hourly updates and candidate names are just distractions now compared to the new main event of the Giants’ coaching search: The NFL’s Wild Card weekend.
Harbaugh’s candidacy and the Giants’ search really is now about two things above all else: it is about this weekend’s playoff results — and how they impact Harbaugh’s market — and it is about how Schoen’s presence already seems to be impeding New York’s process.
Start with the games.
Giants fans who want Harbaugh should be rooting for the Green Bay Packers to beat the Chicago Bears and the Buffalo Bills to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, so that the Packers’ Matt LaFleur and the Bills’ Sean McDermott are not in jeopardy of immediate firings to clear the way for Harbaugh.
Cheering for the Eagles is difficult, but Giants fans also should want Philadelphia to beat the San Francisco 49ers and hope that the Carolina Panthers defeat the Rams.
Would it be fair for the Eagles to fire Nick Sirianni one year after winning a Super Bowl or for the Panthers to can Dave Canales after winning the NFC South? Absolutely not. But who says the NFL is fair?
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie always swings for the fences, and Harbaugh worked in Philly from 1998-2007. And Panthers owner David Tepper is a total wild card who can never be counted out to do the unexpected.
The more of those teams that lose, the more potential for increased competition for Harbaugh.
Miami is considered a serious contender for Harbaugh, or the Dolphins could hire someone else like Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, the grandson of Hall of Fame longtime Miami coach Don Shula.
But again, the Dolphins — who are a real threat to hire Harbaugh — are not the only remaining threat. If the Packers lose and fire LaFleur, for example, which team would Harbaugh choose: Green Bay or New York?
Wild Card weekend could go the Giants’ way and help Harbaugh fall into their laps too.
The right teams could win, the game of musical chairs could slow down, the Dolphins could go in a different direction and Harbaugh could take the bird in hand with the Giants.
Unfortunately, it already feels like Schoen’s presence as the Giants’ GM is casting a pall over this search.
Harbaugh is expected to desire alignment with his front office wherever he ends up signing. Sources believe Harbaugh would want to replace Schoen and bring in his own GM — and that he would likely make a lot more significant changes to the structure of this stale organization to get it up to speed.
But as the longtime Ravens coach delays all of his interviews into next week — and as Schoen responds by interviewing friends like Rizzi who are not even on other teams’ boards — it is clear confirmation that this Giants job would have been more attractive if the franchise had just cleaned house on Black Monday.
Think about the Giants’ vacancy compared to the Dolphins’: Even if one believes that the Giants have a better roster and quarterback situation at the moment, Miami can offer Harbaugh full control over their football operations.
The Giants — as long as ownership continues to empower Schoen — can’t give Harbaugh that.
It’s not too late, of course.
The Dolphins just delayed a decision on firing McDaniel but ultimately fired him because owner Stephen Ross decided that he had someone else in mind. And getting rid of McDaniel now clears the way for Ross to make whatever GM and coach hires he wants.
If Schoen’s presence is ultimately preventing the team from landing Harbaugh, there should be no debate about what the Giants must do.
As it stands, the Giants continue to interview a myriad of candidates and leak the names to keep building hype around a coaching search that carries an increasing amount of potential reward and significant risk — and a heaping dash of dread.
However, they are no longer making the official team announcements about each coaching interview that they once did.
The Giants used to confirm each coach’s interview officially and put the names of all the involved owners and front office members out for the public to see.
No more.
Why not? Perhaps because someone has been added to the 2022 group of John Mara, Steve, Chris Mara and Schoen.
Maybe because they know the fan base has lost faith in their decision-making — especially after retaining Schoen.
Regardless, this search is now happening out in the open for the world to see. And if they lose Harbaugh — especially if it’s due to Schoen’s retention, or because the people in charge want to protect their own positions — it will make it difficult for a lot of their fans to ever truly trust them again.
