If things go according to plan, the New York Giants will be introducing John Harbaugh as their newest head coach by the end of next week. That is the belief of one prominent New York sports columnist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think both parties really want each other, and I don\u2019t see a reason why it wouldn\u2019t work out,\u201d Ian O\u2019Connor, columnist for The Athletic, said on the \u2018Valentine\u2019s Views\u2019 podcast. \u201cIf you said I have to put down 20 bucks on a candidate today, absolutely, John Harbaugh will be the head coach of the Giants by the end of next week. That\u2019s what I believe.\u201c<\/p>\n
Nothing, of course, is guaranteed. Every team with an opening for a head coach would like to talk to Harbaugh. A couple of teams ousted this weekend in the Wild-Card round of the playoffs could also enter the mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for 40 years. I\u2019ve seen a lot of crazy things happen,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly possible that it will go sideways at some point. But I believe today that John Harbaugh is the best candidate for the job and the most likely candidate to get hired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harbaugh is expected to begin taking interviews next week. There are other suitors, such as the Miami Dolphins, and more could emerge after Wild-Card weekend. O\u2019Connor believes, though, that Harbaugh is \u201cvery interested in the Giants\u2019 job.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Harbaugh does come to East Rutherford, N.J., will he actually be interviewing the Giants?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a little bit of that dynamic that will likely be in play during that meeting,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cBut John is more or less a collaborative guy. I think he\u2019s just not the kind of guy who\u2019s going to go in there and demand that Joe Schoen be fired. I think he is going to want personnel say to some degree.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants have always been GM-driven in terms of their decision-making structure, with the general manager having personnel authority rather than the coach. To land Harbaugh, the Giants might need to be willing to bend that structure somewhat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hire John Harbaugh for a reason, and that is to bring his winning expertise to your organization. You don\u2019t limit him to just coaching. I think Joe Schoen knows that,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cFor one, Joe realizes he\u2019s probably lucky he\u2019s still employed, and there are a lot of franchises around the NFL where he wouldn\u2019t be anymore after his record of 13 and 38 the last three years. So, there\u2019s that. Also, he knows that his bosses want to hire John Harbaugh. It\u2019s very likely they want to do that. So, I think they\u2019ll work it out where Harbaugh will have a good amount of say in personnel, but so will Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Mara\u2019s health as a factor<\/p>\n
Mara, of course, is battling cancer. Does his health impact how candidates for the coaching job might feel about the Giants\u2019 job?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019d have to ask each individual candidate because I think that\u2019s not a group answer. Everybody\u2019s going to have a different take on that,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cI think everybody would agree we all want John Mara to live another 30 years, right? And to be running the Giants as long as he wants to run the Giants.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor did say he knows Harbaugh has \u201ctremendous respect\u201d for Mara, and that the co-owner is a \u201cbig positive\u201d in the search for a coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn\u2019s reputation around the league is rock solid. In my 40 years of covering sports in New York, I would say he\u2019s as honorable a man as any owner I\u2019ve covered,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cAnd so I think John Mara at the end of the day is a positive in this search. A big positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Stefanski as Plan B<\/p>\n
If Harbaugh and the Giants end up deciding that they are not a match, the obvious Plan B is Kevin Stefanski, a two-time coach of the year in six seasons with the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n
In talking to O\u2019Connor, I used the analogy that Harbaugh might be a grand slam home run hire, while Stefanski could be a three-run home run. He put his own twist on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a good consolation prize,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cIf John\u2019s a grand slam, a walk-off in the ninth, it\u2019s [hiring Stefanski] a three-run homer in the eighth.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor pointed out that while Stefanski has never worked in the Northeast, he knows the market. He is a Philadelphia native, and his father, Ed Stefanski, served as general manager of both the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Kevin grew up in a home where he understood the pressures of Northeast marketplaces,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cI think Stefanski getting a quarterback he can really work with in Jaxson Dart, and some playmakers and some talent on this roster, and I think he\u2019d feel at home in the Northeast. So, I think that could be a pretty good marriage as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Giants quarterback Phil Simms would also be a fan of bringing Stefanski to the Giants:<\/p>\n
That, of course, would be if both Harbaugh and Stefanski decide to go elsewhere, and Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers never becomes an option.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor knows \u201cthe fan base would erupt,\u201d but said the Giants \u201chave options\u201d in that case.<\/p>\n
One of those might be former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy. McCarthy does not generate the buzz of Harbaugh, Stefanski, or Tomlin, and O\u2019Connor knows fans are \u201c50-50\u201d on hiring him. McCarthy, though, has a Super Bowl title, 12 playoff appearances in 18 seasons, and a reputation for working with some of the game\u2019s premier quarterbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your biggest problem with him right now, looking at the way the last 14 years have gone, is that he struggles winning in the playoffs after winning 12 games in the regular season, that\u2019s a pretty good problem to have the way things have looked in East Rutherford in recent years,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n
[NOTE: Click the player at the top of the post to listen to the full interview.]<\/p>\n
NY Giants head coaching interview schedule<\/p>\n
Mike Kafka (Completed)Kevin Stefanski (Completed)Raheem Morris (Completed)Antonio Pierce (Completed)Vance Joseph (Completed)Darren Rizzi (Saturday \u2014 Russini<\/a>)Lou Anarumo (Pending)Klint Kubiak (Pending)Mike McCarthy (Monday night and Tuesday | Stapleton<\/a>)John Harbaugh (Pending)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If things go according to plan, the New York Giants will be introducing John Harbaugh as their newest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,81078,1207,19079,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-666540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-new-york-giants-coaching-staff","13":"tag-new-york-giants-news","14":"tag-new-york-giants-podcasts","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkgiants","17":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115871759079400400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}