INDIANAPOLIS — The on-field impact of John Harbaugh’s changes to the Giants‘ organizational structure will begin to crystallize here at this week’s 2026 NFL Combine.
The new dynamic between Harbaugh, senior VP of football operations and strategy Dawn Aponte and GM Joe Schoen will turn from a conceptual and partially theoretical conversation to a living reality as the Giants begin building their roster for the fall.
Sometimes when a transition like this occurs, the front office continues its normal operation through the new regime’s first NFL Draft, and meaningful changes take place only afterward.
This can maintain some stability and consistency on the back end of a franchise’s operation, rather than rushing an entirely new system into place and cramming for the annual test that is building an NFL roster.
There is some of this happening with the Giants right now.
Schoen’s scouting staff and system, already in place from his previous four years of running the team, continue to guide the franchise’s process of identifying college prospects and NFL free agents for the time being.
But Aponte’s hiring, job description and direct report to Harbaugh promises to change several meaningful elements of the Giants’ approach and evolution as an operation.
A major curiosity is how Aponte’s “management” of the “salary cap” and “player contract negotiations” will alter how the Giants value and approach players.
Will Schoen be speaking for the Giants’ belief in a player’s value when he meets with an agent here in Indianapolis? Will Aponte be taking the lead in that conversation, with Schoen handling only the football evaluation?
If Schoen is talking money but doesn’t have the final call on contracts, how will that impact which players the Giants ultimately both pursue and sign?
Schoen is known to lean heavily on his confidence in the Giants’ individual evaluations of players and on his staunch belief in positional value, a hard line against paying the likes of running backs and safeties in the past that has not served the team well.
Harbaugh intends to build a team, though, not just to score high offseason grades. Although he is not a general manager or a scout, the Giants hired him for his experience in creating a vision for a group of men and leading them on a mission to fulfill that vision.
This will no longer be a piecemeal roster build. It will have a defined direction.
A betting man would put lay his money on Harbaugh prioritizing leadership qualities, physicality and an overall team identity in the Giants’ decisions on which players to sign and pick.
Making players meet benchmarks in a scouting system is a helpful and required part of the full evaluation.
Knowing how they will fit with the rest of the group, weighing other variables more significantly and adjusting final players accordingly can be the difference between taking the wrong player or adding the perfect player for that team and situation.
This will color how the Giants approach decisions on whether to retain their own players.
Evan Neal and Jalin Hyatt are homegrown draft picks who have been given second, third and fourth chances under Schoen, the GM who picked them. Harbaugh is not likely to extend patience for any player without a good reason.
Wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson and corner Cor’Dale Flott are homegrown draft pick free agents. Does Flott’s position make him a priority if the Giants have to pick one and both have strong markets?
Robinson being a Schoen pick theoretically would prompt the GM to pay him, but do Harbaugh and Aponte have a different idea of what the value of a slot receiver looks like, with no emotional ties?
Then when it’s time to create and debate the draft board for all the prospects taking the field this week in Indianapolis, how will that happen?
Will Aponte and Harbaugh collaborate with Schoen on creating the board? Will Schoen and his scouting staff create a board that Aponte and Harbaugh then are part of tweaking and honing to the organization’s final plan for April?
And if Aponte, who reports to Harbaugh, is the one making all the player contract offers instead of Schoen, what message will that send about the GM’s future? He has one year remaining on his contract, and the plan past April’s NFL Draft so far remains unresolved.
This will be a fascinating first exercise to understand how the new dynamic is going to shape and impact the actual team that takes the field in the fall at MetLife Stadium.
