{"id":755238,"date":"2026-02-16T03:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/755238\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T03:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:55:22","slug":"nfc-notes-john-harbaugh-joe-schoen-cowboys-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/755238\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC Notes: John Harbaugh, Joe Schoen, Cowboys, Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calvin Watkins<\/a> reports that the Cowboys are hiring Kyle Fuller as assistant OL coach.
\nTom Pelissero<\/a> reports that the team is also hiring SMU DC Scott Symons as the ILB coach.<\/p>\n

The Giants\u2019 chase of new HC John Harbaugh was one of the most well-documented coaching searches in recent NFL history. It seemed like everyone was following along as Harbaugh arrived for his visit. Elia Mediterranean Restaurant, the location of dinner between Harbaugh and the team brass, received newfound notoriety as the place where New York closed the deal and landed their man.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Except the actual agreement didn\u2019t come until days later as the Giants and Harbaugh worked out the exact structure, with Harbaugh seeking to have both him and GM Joe Schoen report to owner John Mara rather than have Harbaugh report to Schoen. Harbaugh\u2019s agent was still in contact with the Titans on the Saturday after his in-person interview when Mara called Harbaugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he really wasn\u2019t there yet,\u201d Harbaugh said via The Athletic\u2019s Ian O\u2019Connor<\/a>. \u201cHe was trying to process it all, and I explained to John why it was important for me. \u2026 I agreed with him that it doesn\u2019t really matter in how we operate, but it did matter to me. I already had that (direct report to ownership) in Baltimore. It wasn\u2019t new. I wasn\u2019t comfortable not being that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Mara said, \u201cWe have an agreement. Welcome to the New York Giants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbaugh told O\u2019Connor that so far, so good regarding his working relationship with Schoen. The two have collaborated on building Harbaugh\u2019s staff and other support hires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had high expectations for Joe, and I would say he\u2019s lived up to those high expectations,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked really well together. We talk multiple, multiple times every day \u2026 and a lot of things come up. \u2018We hired an analyst, so what are we paying him? What did the Raiders or Eagles say when we asked for permission to speak to someone?\u2019 Joe\u2019s been a smart judge of tactics and situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Athletic\u2019s Ian O\u2019Connor<\/a>, new Giants senior VP of football operations Dawn Aponte, formerly with the NFL league office, reports directly to Giants HC John Harbaugh instead of GM Joe Schoen. Harbaugh was heavily involved in recruiting and hiring Aponte, per O\u2019Connor.
\nHarbaugh didn\u2019t get his first choice of offensive coordinator in Todd Monken, who got the Browns\u2019 head coaching job, but he is ebullient about his second choice, former Chiefs OC Matt Nagy. He told O\u2019Connor he thought Nagy could be just as good as Monken: \u201cOf course. Of course. I expect Matt to be the best ever. I\u2019m hoping he\u2019ll be the best offensive coordinator to ever coach the game; that\u2019s what we\u2019re shooting for.\u201d
\nHarbaugh told O\u2019Connor that he eventually settled on DC\u00a0Dennard Wilson after\u00a0a recommendation from his replacement in Baltimore, former assistant Jesse Minter.<\/p>\n

Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n

Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calvin Watkins reports that the Cowboys are hiring Kyle Fuller as assistant OL coach. Tom Pelissero reports that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[103787,9197,7,519,10097,201,2909,6518,33638,26822,1917,56,2321,2469,6,107705,23813],"class_list":{"0":"post-755238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-dawn-aponte","9":"tag-dennard-wilson","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-giants","12":"tag-jesse-minter","13":"tag-joe-schoen","14":"tag-john-harbaugh","15":"tag-john-mara","16":"tag-kyle-fuller","17":"tag-matt-nagy","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-giants","20":"tag-newyork","21":"tag-newyorkgiants","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-scott-symons","24":"tag-todd-monken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116078295589802371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755238","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=755238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}