{"id":679472,"date":"2026-01-15T14:55:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/679472\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T14:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:55:20","slug":"what-could-john-harbaugh-do-as-giants-coach-sink-or-swim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/679472\/","title":{"rendered":"What could John Harbaugh do as Giants coach: Sink or swim?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join the huddle. Sign up here<\/a> for Ravens updates in your inbox.<\/p>\n

John Harbaugh learned a lot from Andy Reid in their 10 years together on the Eagles\u2019 coaching staff. Not everything that worked in Philadelphia also worked in Baltimore. But a lot of it did. Some stuff even ended up working out better. <\/p>\n

Harbaugh\u2019s 18-year run as the Ravens\u2019 head coach, which <\/a>ended with his surprise firing last week<\/a>, was among the more successful tenures of any NFL coach in the 21st century, surpassing even Reid\u2019s in Philadelphia. Harbaugh won a Super Bowl; Reid lost in his lone trip. Harbaugh posted a .614 winning percentage; Reid finished at .583 over 14 Eagles seasons. Harbaugh won six division titles; so did Reid. <\/p>\n

Now, with the New York Giants<\/a> reportedly working on a deal to make Harbaugh their fifth full-time head coach of the past decade, the 63-year-old could soon start a second act that would be celebrated in East Rutherford, New Jersey<\/a>, and closely watched in Owings Mills. Would Harbaugh flower as the 67-year-old Reid has in Kansas City, where, along with Patrick Mahomes, he\u2019s won three Super Bowl titles and transformed the Chiefs into a perennial power? Or would he flounder as former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll did in Las Vegas, where the 74-year-old was fired as Raiders coach last week after a miserable debut year? <\/p>\n

At his news conference Tuesday, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti acknowledged the difficulty in moving on from Harbaugh<\/a> just four months after the team had opened the season as Super Bowl favorites. \u201cI know that this is the hardest thing that we\u2019ve ever had to do,\u201d Bisciotti said. \u201cI don\u2019t think any one of you think we blame John, completely, for our falling off our quest for Super Bowls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbaugh would inherit no such expectations as Giants coach. But comparisons to his mentor would be unavoidable. Reid needed just one season to take a two-win Chiefs team back to the playoffs. He needed just four seasons to win the AFC West. He needed just seven seasons to lift the Lombardi Trophy for the first time.<\/p>\n

In Jaxson Dart, Harbaugh would have at least one of the ingredients that supercharged his two turnarounds in Baltimore and Reid\u2019s mini-dynasty in Kansas City: a promising quarterback on a team-friendly rookie contract. Over Joe Flacco and Harbaugh\u2019s first five years in Baltimore, the Ravens went to the playoffs five times, advanced to three AFC Championship games and won Super Bowl XLVII. Over Jackson\u2019s first five years in Baltimore, the Ravens went to the playoffs every year that Jackson finished the season healthy and advanced to the divisional round twice. <\/p>\n

But even if Dart can be the force multiplier that Harbaugh covets at quarterback \u2014 a big if, considering the rookie\u2019s reckless playing style and concussion history<\/a> \u2014 the Giants\u2019 to-do list is longer than any left to Harbaugh over his final years in Baltimore. <\/p>\n

The top-line items are certainly different. On offense, wideout Malik Nabers should solve the WR1 problem that Harbaugh had for years in Baltimore. On defense, Harbaugh should have the star power to support a pass rush \u2014 Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence, Abdul Carter \u2014 even when his scheme cannot<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But everything else about the Giants\u2019 rebuild would test Harbaugh\u2019s skills in identifying and nurturing talent, in fostering a winning culture. Could he rebuild a coaching staff and locker room free of the drama that plagued the end of former Giants coach Brian Daboll\u2019s tenure<\/a>? Harbaugh took pains to shield his staffers and players from slings and arrows, but his occasional public scolds \u2014 not to mention the criticism aimed at him \u2014 would be magnified in the New York media market. <\/p>\n

Could Harbaugh find the right assistant coaches to develop a promising offensive line? In Baltimore, several Ravens starters stagnated or even regressed in their second year under offensive line coach George Warhop.<\/p>\n

Could Harbaugh lead a quick fix of a chronically underperforming defense? The Ravens\u2019 schemes in his tenure were among the NFL\u2019s most influential, but he cycled through assistant coaches on defense in recent years, and few veterans leveled up under coordinator Zach Orr this past season. <\/p>\n

\"NEW<\/p>\n

Head coach Brian Daboll of the New York Giants reacts on the sideline during the fourth quarter against the New Orleans Saints in 2025. (Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Could Harbaugh reinvigorate the Giants\u2019 special teams? His experience as the Eagles\u2019 special teams coordinator imported a standard of excellence to Baltimore, but the Ravens finished only 23rd and 12th there in overall efficiency over the past two years, according to FTN<\/a>, rare seasons outside the top 10. <\/p>\n

And, maybe most importantly, could Harbaugh transcend a questionable front office \u2014 or perhaps even lead one himself? Giants general manager Joe Schoen has tenuous job security after a series of high-profile blunders that have alienated the fan base. Harbaugh would arrive with considerable sway in roster decisions. If Schoen is fired, Harbaugh could fill the void as the Giants\u2019 de facto personnel chief. In Baltimore, he had the benefit of one of the NFL\u2019s best security blankets: a front office led by GM Eric DeCosta that strives to optimize its draft process, retain homegrown talent and keep the team\u2019s window for contention open as long as possible. <\/p>\n

It could take leaving Baltimore for Harbaugh to appreciate what he had with the Ravens. The grass was not greener elsewhere for Carroll, who stepped down in Seattle two years ago after 14 seasons as the Seahawks\u2019 head coach. His reputation as a culture setter and floor raiser went unrealized in Las Vegas. Rampant dysfunction under first-year offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and an apparent disconnect between the coaching staff and front office reportedly undercut the Raiders<\/a> as they finished 3-14, their fewest wins in over a decade.<\/p>\n

It could also take leaving Baltimore for Harbaugh to break out of the coaching rut that doomed his Ravens tenure. Among Harbaugh\u2019s greatest virtues as a coach is his curiosity; through his work with the Harbaugh Coaching Academy<\/a>, he\u2019s interviewed a handful of fellow head coaches, even Kevin Stefanski, then leading the rival Cleveland Browns, probing them for ideas and insights. <\/p>\n

Over a disappointing 2025, Harbaugh rarely seemed to find the right message for his own Ravens team. If he fails with the Giants, it won\u2019t be for a lack of trying. Harbaugh\u2019s openness to evolution and compromise<\/a> made him the longest-serving head coach in Baltimore\u2019s professional sports history. Now comes the biggest change, and challenge, of his career. <\/p>\n

\u201cCoaching at any level is a day-to-day job, and your job is to do the best job you can today, and to do everything you can to help your players and your coaches \u2013 if you\u2019re a head coach \u2013 be the best they can be every single day,\u201d Harbaugh said late in the season, as questions swirled about his job security<\/a>. \u201cWe have responsibilities, and we\u2019re given opportunities to steward those responsibilities, and you\u2019re given a job to do that until you\u2019re not. And then I try to do the job, not try to keep the job, because there\u2019s no such thing as having a job. You\u2019re just doing a job. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so my focus is on always … to try to do the best job I can today and fight as hard as I can so the guys have the best chance to be successful today. And anything after today, I\u2019m not thinking about, because it\u2019s not given for us to think about. We don\u2019t have control over that, except for the job we do today. And if we do a good enough job today, then the opportunity to do that job or a different job will be there tomorrow, and that\u2019s what you hope for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Join the huddle. Sign up here for Ravens updates in your inbox. John Harbaugh learned a lot from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2052],"tags":[265,184,117,2282,7,6,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-679472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-ravens","11":"tag-baltimoreravens","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115899697081802839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679472","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=679472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}