Giants have quantity and quality of candidates to choose from during search for head coach
John Harbaugh, the former coach of the Baltimore Ravens, looks on before a game against the Giants at MetLife Stadium on Dec. 15, 2024. Credit: Getty Images/Luke Hales
Joe Schoen was out to dinner with a recently-canned two-time NFL Coach of the Year on Tuesday night when news broke that a Super Bowl-winning head coach had been fired.
In football, timing is everything. Whether it’s in regard to a pass between quarterback and receiver, the way a defensive back reaches in to break up a touchdown, or the way a draft board opens up to present opportunities that weren’t there in anyone’s mock, the precision with which things occur is the essence of the sport. They say it is a game of inches, but really it is a game of minutes and seconds, moments when chance converges with readiness.
The Giants are in such a place right now.
No team wants to be in the market for a head coach, certainly not after a four-win season in which the former guy was fired in November. But if ever there was a time for the Giants to find themselves in such straits, this is the one. It’s hard to remember a previous hiring cycle – and around here in New York it feels as if we’ve been part of just about all of them for the past decade – with so many prominent possibilities and tempting names, some of which may still shake free into the market.
The last time the Giants had a vacancy and there was a hot slam-dunk option out there, it was Matt Rhule. They lost that chase to the Panthers, but looking back it’s pretty clear that there were no winners to come from it.
This time? There is Kevin Stefanski, the former Browns coach who was breaking bread with Schoen on Tuesday and who had his formal interview with the team’s brass at the facility on Wednesday. There is John Harbaugh, the Super Bowl-winner axed by the Ravens on Tuesday; as of Wednesday night he had yet to set up a date and place to meet with the Giants but it should be soon. There is Mike McCarthy, another Super Bowl-winning coach. And there are a number of other very strong, quality candidates seemingly overshadowed by the depth of resumes who in any other year would be the superstars everyone is drooling over: Vance Joseph, Lou Anarumo, Raheem Morris, Mike Kafka, Kliff Kingsbury . . . heck, maybe even Davis Webb.
It’s almost enough to make it hard to imagine the Giants screwing this up. Almost.
Of course, Harbaugh right now is considered to be the top option for just about every team in the league that has an opening, and some without one. There may even be playoff teams drooling over the possibility of losing in the wildcard round this weekend just so they can justify getting a chance to consider bringing him in. That in itself could widen the field again if Mike Tomlin or Matt LaFleur or Nick Sirianni suddenly find themselves looking for work.
There are only so many studio gigs for these guys to get during a reset season. Somebody has to coach these 32 teams!
Timing here has its disadvantages for the Giants, too. It’s not as simple as just saying the introductory news conference will be on Monday and then spending the next few days hammering out the deal to bring Harbaugh in. The Giants are obliged to conduct two in-person interviews with external minority candidates — so Kafka, their interim head coach the past two months who completed his interview earlier this week, does not count — and given that they are still defendants in a lawsuit against them from the last time they tried to maneuver through this situation they would be wise to make sure their hearts are in those meetings. They will be.
They also cannot conduct interviews with anyone currently under contract with another team until Thursday at the earliest and that can only be virtual. If the candidate is in the playoffs that date gets pushed back further.
In other words, this may take a while.
The Giants have a lot going for them. They have a quarterback in Jaxson Dart, they have young explosive offensive players who should be coming back from injury in Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo, they have the framework for a strong defensive front if it is deployed properly, and they have a functioning offensive line. They also have New York itself, the lure of coaching in the biggest market in the country, and they present a chance to anyone to be the Guy Who Saved The Giants. They are competing against a lot of other teams, but they are, from the outside, one of if not the top destination this cycle.
The timing again could not be better for them.
So who will it be?
Harbaugh seems a perfect fit now, but that could change. It’ll be up to Schoen and ownership to decide, and the candidates get a say here too. It’ll be up to the process to work out. But there are multiple winning options out there – Schoen experienced that first-hand at his dinner -- and the Giants should be able to land one of them.
One is all they need.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
