The New York Giants have no standards anymore.
That’s what ownership declared with its decision to retain general manager Joe Schoen after its team wrapped up a 4-13 season on Sunday. That followed a 3-14 record in 2024. The Giants’ 22-45-1 record in Schoen’s four seasons is the sixth worst in the NFL over that stretch.
As discouraging as that decision is for fans who somehow still muster support for a team that is getting further from its proud history with each passing season, that’s ownership’s right. If your grandfather had spent $500 to purchase the Giants in 1925, you, too, could make decisions that prioritized keeping family members and allies in cushy roles as the franchise bottoms out during one of the worst stretches in its 101-year history.
Schoen was spared on Monday in an incomprehensible move, based on the product he’s put on the field during his tenure. Since a nine-win season with an inherited roster in his first year, the Giants have gone 13-38 over the past three seasons as Schoen’s imprint on the team has grown.
But even Schoen is only a symptom of the rot that has infected the franchise. Just look through the staff directory and note how many people with lofty titles have survived losing season after losing season.
That focus starts with members of ownership in prominent front office roles. It was the very arrangement that franchise-saving general manager George Young prevented during his tenure from 1979-97.
“We can’t have any fireproof heads of player personnel,” Young said when blocking the ascension of Chris Mara to the head of player personnel in the 1990s.
Young’s warnings were eventually disregarded, with Mara, the younger brother of team president and CEO John Mara, returning to the organization as vice president of player evaluation in 2003 after a decade-long sabbatical. His current title is senior player personnel executive.
Chris Mara’s involvement in personnel decisions has been reduced in recent years, but his role as an owner is expected to grow as John Mara battles cancer.
The nepotism extended to the next generation with Tim McDonnell, John and Chris’ nephew, joining the front office in 2013 as a pro scout. That was his role for six years before he was promoted to assistant director of player personnel in 2019. He held that title for two years before getting promoted again to his current role as director of player personnel, where he “works closely with Schoen and assistant general manager Brandon Brown in overseeing all aspects of the player personnel department,” according to his team biography.
The Giants have the third-worst record in the NFL since McDonnell joined the organization, yet he has continued to climb the front office ladder. It’s certainly not all McDonnell’s fault that the team has been so dreadful over the past decade, but firing Schoen may have drawn more attention to the head of the personnel department, who continues to secure promotions during this dark stretch.
And that’s only to mention the family members in prominent roles. There are members in every department of the organization who have been untouchable through every regime change.
Things might not be as comfortable for the protected class if a new general manager took over. But no one has to worry about that, because for all of the losses by his roster on the field, Schoen scored the most important win for survival in the Giants’ organization by endearing himself to ownership.
So now, as always, the Giants turn their focus to a new head coach to save the franchise.
“Their solution forever has been hire a new coach, and he’ll solve all the ills, but they didn’t change anything else,” a former member of the Giants’ coaching staff told The Athletic four years ago. “They didn’t change their personnel department; they didn’t change how they do things; they didn’t change any of that stuff. If you want to make a real organizational change, you’ve got to change everybody. You’ve got to change the people who are in charge of the personnel. You’ve got to get new ideas in there.”
History is repeating, with Brian Daboll, who arrived from Buffalo with Schoen in 2022, sent packing 10 weeks into this season. But that’s the only change despite the talent Schoen assembled going 2-5 after Daboll was replaced.
The Giants have unnecessarily painted themselves into a corner as they seek a new coach. It’s possible that Schoen, who worked closely with Daboll for four years in Buffalo and three more years with the Giants and thought he was the right coach, nails this head-coaching search.
But there’s a very obvious worst-case scenario that the Giants are willfully dismissing: What if the new coach doesn’t succeed immediately with a core that has won seven games over the past two seasons?
Make no mistake, the expectation must be for a new coach to win immediately to validate the decision to stick with Schoen. But for every Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel who engineer an instant turnaround, there’s an Aaron Glenn and Pete Carroll who flop in Year 1.
Any new coach should get grace, but where would that leave Schoen if the Giants endure a fourth straight double-digit loss season? Would ownership run it back with Schoen again in the hopes that a sixth try would be the charm? Or would they fire him and bring in a new GM who didn’t hire the existing coach?
The question ownership has to be asking is: What advantage does Schoen provide over a totally clean slate with a new GM and coach?
Schoen doesn’t believe his presence will be a deterrent to coaching candidates. There are only 32 NFL head-coaching jobs, and the Giants have some attractive assets. It’s just impossible to imagine Schoen is viewed as a lure. And keeping him could add an unnecessary hurdle to a search that the Giants must get right.
Schoen is entering the final year of the five-year contract he signed when he was hired. The Giants can’t have him conduct the coaching search as a lame duck, so they’ll need to extend him. He declined to “get into my personal contract situation” on Monday. That deal figures to leak in a calculated news dump around 11 p.m. on some Friday in July.
Again, the path to avoid this mess was so obvious. Schoen got more than enough time. It didn’t work. It happens. Clean house.
The Giants’ inability to accept that and make a hard decision — that really shouldn’t be that hard — shows just how poorly this organization has been run. Instead, they’ll chase outliers like Les Snead, who went 27-36-1 in his first four seasons with the Rams before leading that franchise to a Super Bowl title.
That’s how the Giants have operated. They’re like a poker player desperately chasing an inside straight. They’re convinced their card will come and solve all of their problems despite the odds stacked against it. Then they act surprised when they don’t hit the straight, even though the outcome was obvious to outsiders.
So, now the beleaguered fans sticking with the team are left to put their confidence in the same people who decided to keep a GM with a .331 winning percentage to lead the franchise back to prominence. It’s a big ask.
This once proud franchise has been driven into the ground over the past decade. With this latest decision, ownership grabbed a shovel and kept digging deeper.