![\"Dawn](\"https:\/\/platform.bigblueview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2026\/02\/gettyimages-2211389721.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDawn Aponte Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Dawn Aponte \u2018makes us better\u2019<\/p>\n
Why did the Giants hire Dawn Aponte to replace Kevin Abrams?<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be the very best we can be,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cIt was an opportunity. I\u2019ve known Dawn for many years through the league circles and have worked with her on different projects and things like that. Nothing but the utmost respect for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it became apparent that she was interested in this particular job it was obvious that she was the perfect fit for what we were trying to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe makes us better. She gives us a chance to be our very best.\u201d<\/p>\n
The part of hiring Aponte that has raised eyebrows is that she reports to Harbaugh and not Schoen. So, even though she is below Schoen on an organization chart, her power is apparent.<\/p>\n
Why was Aponte reporting to him important to Harbaugh?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s important in any other way than just trying to figure out how we want to operate and be our best,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cIt\u2019s like building your team. You got players, you try to build your schemes around who you have. Make it work the best way it\u2019s going to work. So we want our plays to fit our guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we want our operation format to fit the people that we have. So Joe and I were figuring everything out. Not just Joe and I, but also John, Chris [Mara], everybody involved. But mainly us. How do we want to operate? Who do we want to put in charge of what? Who do we want to talk to who? What\u2019s the best way to make it work? I\u2019m sure it will always be evolving for what\u2019s best at any given time. We organized it the way we organized it because we felt like this is the best way to be effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoen worked with Aponte with the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a tremendous resource with a lot of experience. So I will lean on Dawn in terms of her expertise and her background when I see fit. So, again, I see her as a tremendous resource with her salary cap background,\u201d Schoen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, it\u2019s an easy transition because it\u2019s a lot of what Kevin Abrams was doing, if you guys remember what Kevin\u2019s role was. So it\u2019s essentially the same. Again, a different skill set maybe and a different background than what Kevin has, so some different strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut just a really good hire for us, and she\u2019s been a tremendous asset thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a tremendous resource with a lot of experience. So I will lean on Dawn in terms of her expertise and her background when I see fit. So, again, I see her as a tremendous resource, again, with her salary cap background.<\/p>\n
Basically, it\u2019s an easy transition because it\u2019s a lot of what Kevin Abrams was doing, if you guys remember what Kevin\u2019s role was. So it\u2019s essentially the same. Again, a different skill set maybe and a different background than what Kevin has, so some different strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n
But just a really good hire for us, and she\u2019s been a tremendous asset thus far.<\/p>\n
In addition to salary cap and contract negotiation duties, the Giants\u2019 video and analytics departments will also report to Aponte.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s integration. The thing that you come to understand over all these years, it\u2019s probably true for really any organization, that you\u2019ve got to be aligned and you\u2019ve got to be integrated. And everybody\u2019s got to be working together,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cThere\u2019s got to be a shared understanding, a vision of what you\u2019re trying to accomplish. There\u2019s got to be a shared understanding of who you are, what you stand for, what the values are, of how we\u2019re going to get there, what our plans are. That takes constant communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got to be flat. Everybody\u2019s got to be working together. The idea that there\u2019s too much hierarchy or silos or separate fences and things like that just can\u2019t be a part of it. Not in football, not in anything. So someone like Dawn helps Joe and I, the three of us really, working together to make sure that all of our systems are integrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Tisch is radioactive<\/p>\n
Neither Harbaugh nor Schoen wanted to go anywhere near talking about the Giants\u2019 co-owner\u2019s involvement in the Epstein files.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve released a statement a few weeks ago about the regret. So I\u2019m just going to leave it at that. I\u2019m not going to comment anymore on that,\u201d Schoen said.<\/p>\n
Harbaugh, asked about Tisch, talked about football.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave great respect for the ownership. All the people I\u2019ve gotten to meet, John and Steve and Chris Mara and John Tisch and Carolyn Tisch and the Koch family have been nothing but great conversations, great interactions,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve been talking about the business of football, you know, the business of building our team, the business of putting staffs together, all the things that we\u2019re talking about with the integration that you just asked about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on it, Harbaugh mostly parroted Schoen\u2019s answer:<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve put out a statement where he expressed his regret. That\u2019s where it stands for me. That\u2019s where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Too many cooks in the kitchen\u2019<\/p>\n
There are four coaches on the Giants\u2019 offensive staff who have been NFL play-callers \u2014 offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, quarterbacks coach\/pass game coordinator Brian Callahan, senior offensive assistant Greg Roman, and tight ends coach Tim Kelly. Nagy and Callahan have been NFL head coaches.<\/p>\n
As such, I asked Harbaugh about the perceptions that there might be \u201ctoo many cooks in the kitchen\u201d for the Giants on offense. How would he get all of those experienced offensive coaches to stay in their lanes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s part of organizing how you want to operate. I don\u2019t think it really is determined by who\u2019s had what experience so much as who they are as people and coaches and how they fit together,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cA big part of my job is to make sure that we do have alignment that way and that we are operating in a way that is efficient and effective and is together. Not just saying, okay, we\u2019re going to collaborate and walking away. How are we going to organize our process?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harbaugh went further, elaborating on something he believes helped make him successful in Baltimore.<\/p>\n
\u201cSystem building to me is really important,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the systems is the plays and the way the offense operates. Another part of the system is how you operate the game planning part. How you operate practices. How you operate installing and teaching and preparing your guys. If we\u2019re really intentional about all that, we should be organizing a system that all those play caller guys, all those great minds we have, are working together.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow does that work? What do we do first? What do we do second? Who talks to who when?<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those things are organized in a way that is intentional so that we can at the end of the day have the best game plan when we go on the field. Hopefully you see it in the way the guys play because we\u2019ve organized it in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 18 Combines as Ravens\u2019 coach, Harbaugh was in new threads this time when he stepped to the podium. How different is the experience being head coach of the Giants for the first time?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting.You know, it\u2019s fun. I really feel energized. Always do,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cWhenever you come to Indy, you feel energized. I mean, you get a chance to get around. You see the players.You have the interviews. You see the coaches. You see the GMs. You kind of size up your competition. I mean, let\u2019s be honest. You know, it\u2019s competitive. You know, and you get a chance to kind of take a look at who\u2019s doing what and how they\u2019re trying to do it. So, that never changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited about it. I mean, I\u2019m thrilled to have the opportunity to represent the New York Giants. And we\u2019re just really going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. \u2014 New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen spoke to media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,1870,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-774238","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-analysis","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkgiants","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116128164378400308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774238","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=774238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}