John Harbaugh<\/a>\u2018s team now, and Schoen\u2019s role absolutely has changed. The GM is still running the scouting staff, but the bulk of the Giants\u2019 operation now reports to Aponte, and she reports to Harbaugh.<\/p>\nSchoen\u2019s and the organization\u2019s focus on combatting public perception about this reality, though, ironically is one of the reasons why Harbaugh is making these dramatic changes to the building\u2019s reporting structure and personnel.<\/p>\n
The Giants have undercut themselves for years by enabling or pushing personal agendas, allowing outsized influence in various hidden corners of the building, focusing more on public perception than the jobs they were hired to do and selectively assigning accountability to some while keeping it clear of others.<\/p>\n
So Harbaugh\u2019s explanation of why he hired Aponte on Tuesday was refreshing, encouraging and spot on for what the Giants need: someone who aligns the entire building under one set of expectations and points it in the same direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s integration,\u201d the $20 million-a-year coach said. \u201cThe thing that you come to understand over all these years, and it\u2019s probably really true for any organization, that you\u2019ve got to be aligned and you\u2019ve got to be integrated, and everybody has got to be working together. There\u2019s got to be a shared understanding, a vision of what you\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat takes constant communication,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s got to be flat. Everybody has 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. Someone like Dawn helps Joe and [me], the three of us really, working together to make sure that all of our systems are integrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants should not run from this, either.<\/p>\n
They hired Harbaugh to revolutionize the way they operate and to win. They paid him like their new leader, and his final say over Schoen and direct report to co-owner John Mara makes him that, too.<\/p>\n
This has been Schoen\u2019s team the last four years. It is now Harbaugh\u2019s. No one disputes that.<\/p>\n
It is true Schoen still is technically the GM, though, and given that he is a survivor with sponsors at high levels of the organization, it is of course believable that he could be retained despite the Giants\u2019 track record on his watch if he accepts this reduced role.<\/p>\n
Harbaugh is also a leader. So even though he demonstrates the urge at times to make clear he is in charge, he recognizes that delegating and collaborating are inherent parts of running an organization and in empowering employees to contribute to the whole.<\/p>\n
By the way, this arrangement could continue to evolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure it will always be evolving for what\u2019s best at any given time,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cWe just organize it the way we organize it because we feel like it\u2019s the best way to be effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoen was asked directly if Aponte or he would be running the agent or free agent meetings at the NFL Combine, or if it will be done collaboratively. He did not assert that he would be leading those meetings himself.<\/p>\n
Harbaugh\u2019s heavy involvement in player scouting and in creating the draft board also, despite Schoen\u2019s title, is another example of just how much change is coming to the Giants\u2019 operation.<\/p>\n
The head coach revealed that he has an office set up in his hotel room to watch college tape and see \u201call the prospects.\u201d He doesn\u2019t even go down to the Lucas Oil Stadium floor to watch player workouts because that film can be fed to his computer more efficiently.<\/p>\n
How involved does Harbaugh intend to be in scouting and draft players compared to his role in Baltimore?<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan on being the same,\u201d he said. \u201cI was heavily involved there, and I\u2019m heavily involved here. We always had an arrangement. It is truly a collaboration. So the term I came up with [Ravens Hall of Fame GM] Ozzie [Newsome] after we worked together for a couple years was we figured out how to agree to agree.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019d have a lot of conversations about players, who we liked and didn\u2019t like, who he wanted, who I wanted, how they ranked, who we might take and not take,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd Ozzie was picking the players, so sometimes I was making the case. But other times he was making the case to me because he didn\u2019t want to take somebody that the coach didn\u2019t want, that I didn\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harbaugh said \u201cthat\u2019s what we\u2019ll be doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll watch a ton of guys on tape,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll have my opinions, and then we\u2019ll work it out. And the two biggest opinions are going to be the GM and the head coach. Those are gonna be the two that matter the most. Those are the decision makers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoen, meanwhile, admitted he is behind in his normal schedule this year due to the coaching search and said Harbaugh\u2019s personnel eye is impressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been involved in 18 drafts, so he knows what a third-round pick looks like, a second round,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s unique from that standpoint, that he can assign a value to the players. And he\u2019s been pretty spot on from the evaluations he\u2019s done thus far. And he\u2019s very interested in the process. He\u2019s watched several college players already. He got a jumpstart on that, which has been impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the GM indicated that while Schoen and the scouts have created an initial draft board already, he expects Harbaugh to be involved in creating the final draft board in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we get to April we\u2019ll circle up as a group,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the board as it\u2019s constructed thus far \u2014 we\u2019ve had two weeks of meetings in February \u2014 was me and the scouts. That\u2019s already constructed. We call it get the players in the right zip code during that time of year. Then what else do we need to find out in the spring.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Then in April] we really drill down to hey if we have these three running backs in the second round, how do we want to stack them, and we do deep dives,\u201d he added. \u201cSo I\u2019m guessing coach will be a part of that process. But as the board is now, that was from the personnel staff and myself thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n
So there is acknowledgement that Harbaugh will be a heavy influence even in Schoen\u2019s area. And, if push ever comes to shove, Harbaugh just happens to have the tiebreaking final say.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomedays I pinch myself, man, John Harbaugh\u2019s our head coach,\u201d Schoen said.<\/p>\n
Those are the words of someone who feels fortunate to still be here \u2014 and is.<\/p>\n
Here on the new version of the Giants. John Harbaugh\u2019s Giants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Joe Schoen announced in a surreal scene Tuesday at the NFL Combine that he is still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2067],"tags":[103787,7,519,201,2909,1917,56,2321,2469,6,1967],"class_list":{"0":"post-776167","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-football","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-joe-schoen","12":"tag-john-harbaugh","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-giants","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkgiants","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-nfl-scouting-combine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116133074769752324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776167","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=776167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}