{"id":698362,"date":"2026-01-23T07:37:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698362\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T07:37:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:37:05","slug":"ronnie-barnes-kevin-abrams-part-of-john-harbaughs-first-giants-shakeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698362\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronnie Barnes, Kevin Abrams part of John Harbaugh’s first Giants shakeup"},"content":{"rendered":"

No one said it was going to be easy.<\/p>\n

John Harbaugh\u2019s purge of the Giants<\/a> began immediately on Tuesday and Wednesday with some big changes to big names on the franchise\u2019s masthead.<\/p>\n

Ronnie Barnes<\/a>, the team\u2019s long-tenured senior vice president of medical services and head athletic trainer, is being reassigned.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh will be hiring a new head athletic trainer. Barnes will retain a title overseeing the Giants\u2019 medical services but will no longer have the sweeping say and authority he has exerted across various coaching staffs.<\/p>\n

And Kevin Abrams, a front office mainstay and recent senior vice president of football operations who helped manage the salary cap, is no longer working for the team.<\/p>\n

Both Barnes and Abrams previously were untouchable due to strong connections with ownership.<\/p>\n

Previous staffs had tried to gut the training room from the top down \u2014 due to its underperformance with player injuries and its outsized influence on the organization and media \u2014 and had been told no.<\/p>\n

But Harbaugh is wielding a new kind of power.<\/p>\n

The Giants hired him because he is a leader of men who intends to pull this entire building in one direction together. And he is now making the necessary changes to ensure that\u2019s feasible.<\/p>\n

Reassigning Barnes is touching the third rail of the Giants\u2019 organization. It\u2019s such a sensitive topic that the team released a statement clarifying that \u201cBarnes\u2019 role is not changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But again, that is not true. This is a new day.<\/p>\n

GM Joe Schoen for now is not being fired, the Daily News is told, after having his power stripped away<\/a> in Harbaugh\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

Schoen is not expected to last long in New York with Harbaugh at the helm, but nothing is happening to him imminently.<\/p>\n

Reassigning Barnes and not retiring him \u2014 and retaining Schoen in the short term \u2014 are risky half-measures by Harbaugh. It would be more efficient to start fresh.<\/p>\n

But he is obviously navigating the politics of what departments he can touch and how significantly he can change them delicately.<\/p>\n

The coaching staff is receiving a nearly complete overhaul.<\/p>\n

Defensive line coach Andre Patterson, a horrendous influence on the defense, the run defense and the players\u2019 attitudes, leads a host of Giants coaches who have been fired.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh is going to bring plenty of people from Baltimore to New York.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be surprised if Nick Matteo, the Ravens\u2019 current VP of football administration, fills the Giants vacancy left by Abrams\u2019 departure.<\/p>\n

Matteo is a rising star from Ramsey, N.J., who went to Bergen Catholic, interned for the Giants, worked a decade for the league and seven years in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

Todd Monken, the Ravens\u2019 former offensive coordinator, is expected to be the Giants\u2019 offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins\u2019 Anthony Weaver and the Titans\u2019 Dennard Wilson are the two names to watch at defensive coordinator. Both worked for Harbaugh with the Ravens, and the Giants already tried to hire Wilson once in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Ravens blocked the Giants from interviewing Baltimore special teams coordinator Chris Horton. If Baltimore hires a new coach who lets Horton walk, he could still be Harbaugh\u2019s guy. Or he could tab his second in command, Randy Brown.<\/p>\n

Baltimore defensive coordinator Zach Orr, The News is told, could join Harbaugh as New York\u2019s linebackers coach.<\/p>\n

Dennis Johnson is expected to follow Harbaugh to coach the defensive line, and other position coaches to watch include Chuck Pagano (secondary), Matt Robinson (outside linebackers), Tee Martin (quarterbacks) and Willie Taggert (running back).<\/p>\n

Also watch for changes in the video department, training room, strength room and public relations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a new day in New York. And it was never going to be easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No one said it was going to be easy. John Harbaugh\u2019s purge of the Giants began immediately on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,2909,101466,1917,56,2321,2469,6,82001],"class_list":["post-698362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-john-harbaugh","tag-kevin-abrams","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl","tag-ronnie-barnes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115943270732359845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698362","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=698362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}