{"id":831242,"date":"2026-03-24T16:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/831242\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:01:16","slug":"john-harbaugh-is-making-sure-these-arent-the-same-old-ny-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/831242\/","title":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh is making sure these aren\u2019t the same old NY Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sections of the New York Giants fan base were aghast on Monday when Todd McShay selected Jeremiyah Love for New York at No. 5<\/a>, saying \u201cleague intel\u201d makes him believe the Giants are seriously considering the Notre Dame running back.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 Saquon Barkley was a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 positional value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 that never works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 that breaks the Big Blue View Rules for Draft Success<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not about whether the Giants should or should not select Love in the 2026 NFL Draft if they have the opportunity. This is about Giants fans needing to understand that none of what has happened in the past in terms of how the Giants made decisions matters.<\/p>\n

Saquon Barkley doesn\u2019t matter. Dave Gettleman\u2019s mistakes don\u2019t matter. Joe Judge\u2019s beliefs don\u2019t matter. Brian Daboll\u2019s opinions and evaluations of players don\u2019t matter. General manager Joe Schoen\u2019s belief in positional value doesn\u2019t matter much, either, even though Schoen still has his job.<\/p>\n

Schoen adamantly says, \u201cI\u2019m still the general manager of the team and my role has not changed,\u201d but he knows that the way he thinks has to change.<\/p>\n

The Giants are now John Harbaugh\u2019s show. Harbaugh does not care about Barkley. He does not care about Gettleman. He does not care what Daboll thought. We have seen with Evan Neal and Josh Ezeudu that he does not care if a player failed under a previous regime. If he liked that player during past draft evaluations, he wants to see for himself if the player can be salvaged.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh doesn\u2019t care about positional value or need at No. 5 in the draft. He thinks differently about the game than the majority of head coaches, with the market-setting contracts given to fullback Patrick Ricard and punter Jordan Stout as evidence.<\/p>\n

Schoen understands the Giants\u2019 new world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave I evolved? Yes. Do I like it? No,\u201d Schoen said at the NFL Scouting Combine. \u201cWhen you think about what Malik [Nabers] would get on the open market or even Jaxson [Dart] or Abdul [Carter], you get a surplus value from taking those players where you took them. There are some positions where you don\u2019t get the benefit of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that mean I won\u2019t take a player because of that? No. I\u2019ll take the best player available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schoen added that the Giants will pick \u201cThe best football players that we can pick that will fit the schemes that we\u2019re going to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is time for Giants fans to evolve, too.<\/p>\n

I had Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post on Tuesday\u2019s \u2018Valentine\u2019s Views\u2019 podcast, which you can listen to in full using the player above.<\/p>\n

The conversation with Dunleavy really got cooking when I said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened with Saquon Barkley doesn\u2019t matter. What Dave Gettleman did doesn\u2019t matter. What Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge and Brian Daboll and now, honest to God, even Joe Schoen thought about running back value no longer matters. This is John Harbaugh\u2019s show, and it\u2019s John Harbaugh\u2019s decision, and he doesn\u2019t see value the way anybody else does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unsaid part of that is that Harbaugh has an 18-year track record of success that gives him the right to believe he sees things correctly. He has earned the right to be trusted to build a better version of the Giants.<\/p>\n

Here is Dunleavy\u2019s response:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Harbaugh] sees value the way I see value, actually, which makes me feel good. It\u2019s what I\u2019ve been screaming about for seven years. It\u2019s what people online give me a hard time about, which is he wants great players. I want great players. Everybody should want great players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Dave Gettleman gold jacket test\u2019<\/p>\n

Every year I get asked I think the Giants need most in the draft. My answer is almost always \u201cdifference-making\u201d or \u201cgame-changing\u201d players.<\/p>\n

Gettleman\u2019s mistake in drafting Barkley was not that he didn\u2019t identify a \u201cdifference-making\u201d or \u201cgame-changing\u201d player. He did. He just failed to understand that beginning a rebuild with a running back whose value the Giants as constructed would never be able to maximize was a bad idea. They would never get where they wanted to go that way.<\/p>\n

Dunleavy added that what happened with the Giants seven years ago \u201cis totally irrelevant to John Harbaugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had a chance to really be around John Harbaugh at all. But know people who know him. And my sense is he believes in great players. The old Dave Gettleman gold jacket test,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cIf I\u2019m going to get a Hall of Fame safety, Caleb Downs, if I\u2019m going to get a Hall of Fame running back, Jeremiyah Love, if I\u2019m going to get a Hall of Fame inside linebacker, Sonny Styles, well, that\u2019s better than getting a average right tackle or an average wide receiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because positional value tells me those guys are bet cheaper on their second contracts than uh than the other guys. Well, I want a great player. I truly believe it\u2019s a new day in terms of that. It\u2019s the day I\u2019ve always believed. It is John Harbaugh saying, \u2018Give me great players\u2019. That\u2019s what wins games, Jimmies and Joe\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are more takeaways from my discussion with Dunleavy.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t discount Francis Mauigoa<\/p>\n

In recent discussions about Love, Styles, Downs, and even the idea of trading down from No. 5 and perhaps targeting Penn State guard Vego Ioane, the thought of selecting Miami offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa has been overlooked.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is a mistake. And, I admit, I have been among the guilty parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI obviously believe very strongly in the running back, in the great running back,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cThat said, I wouldn\u2019t pick Jeremiyah Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at the Giants and I say I don\u2019t like the right guard situation at all. I don\u2019t like the cornerback situation very much. Wide receiver, too, still kind of scares me \u2026 I don\u2019t like the defensive tackle situation at all.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was the GM, first I would try to trade down from five to somewhere in the top 10. That would be the first thing I\u2019d want to do because I think there\u2019s enough other spots I could fill. If I was five and I was the Giants right now, today, reserve the right to change because right now they\u2019re starting Evan Neal or Josh Ezeudu at right guard. So, right now, if it was me, based on things I\u2019ve heard, I would draft Francis Mauigoa to be my right guard year one, maybe year two, and then eventually be the right tackle who replaces Jermaine Euemunor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people in the NFL who think he is a day one starting right tackle, and there are people who think he has All-Pro bowl caliber ceiling as a right guard. There are people who are terrified of having a guy who hasn\u2019t played right guard learn right guard in the NFL. But there are people who say he profiles as a better road-grading, powerful guard in the NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Joe Schoen and other Giants representatives were at Miami\u2019s Pro Day on Monday.<\/p>\n

Have the Giants gotten better?<\/p>\n

The accepted narrative is that with Harbaugh\u2019s pedigree and the veteran staff he has assembled, the Giants will be coached better than they have been since the Tom Coughlin era. Have they gotten more talented, though?<\/p>\n

Like Big Blue View\u2019s Tony Del Genio, Dunleavy isn\u2019t certain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels kind of like they took their strengths over here and put them over here, and they took their weaknesses over here and they put them over here, and they just kind of reshuffled the deck,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I think the Giants got much better in free agency. So, to me, that\u2019s a little discouraging. I think their overall team grade, to use a Madden term, is probably about the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

[NOTE: Take the time to give the full show a listen. There is a LOT that I have not covered here.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sections of the New York Giants fan base were aghast on Monday when Todd McShay selected Jeremiyah Love…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,1870,2321,2469,6,3748],"class_list":["post-831242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-giants-analysis","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl","tag-valentines-views"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116284993743448208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831242","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=831242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}