The New York Giants are heading into another offseason with more questions than answers-this time, at the top of the coaching staff. Brian Daboll is out as head coach, and while that move wasn’t entirely unexpected given the team’s struggles, what is raising eyebrows is the decision to keep general manager Joe Schoen in place.
Schoen, who was responsible for hiring Daboll in the first place, now finds himself tasked with leading the search for the Giants’ next head coach. On the surface, it sounds like a standard front office reshuffle. But dig a little deeper, and the situation gets murkier.
Here’s the issue: when a GM is on shaky ground-and make no mistake, Schoen’s seat is getting warmer-you run the risk of creating a short shelf life for whoever takes the coaching job. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell flagged this dynamic as a major red flag, and he’s not wrong.
If Schoen doesn’t turn things around quickly, the Giants could be looking at yet another regime change in the next year or two. And when that happens, the new GM will almost certainly want to bring in his own head coach.
That kind of instability is a real concern for top coaching candidates. You’re not just signing up to coach a team-you’re signing up to align with a front office, build a culture, and grow with a roster.
If there’s a chance your GM could be gone before your second or third season, that’s a tough sell. Coaches want to know they’ll have time to implement their systems and develop their players.
Without that assurance, it’s hard to attract the best of the best.
Barnwell ranks the Giants’ head coaching vacancy as the fifth-best out of eight potential openings this offseason, and a big part of that ranking comes down to this very issue. It’s not about the roster.
It’s not even about the quarterback situation. It’s about organizational stability-or the lack thereof.
Speaking of quarterbacks, the Giants are expected to move forward with Jaxson Dart, and while some concerns have been raised about his durability and his tendency to take too many hits, there’s still a lot to like. Dart has shown flashes of being a legitimate NFL starter, and for many coaching candidates, the opportunity to develop a young quarterback with that kind of upside is going to be a draw, not a deterrent.
But again, the quarterback situation isn’t the main hurdle here. The real challenge is convincing a top-tier head coach that this franchise has a clear, stable vision moving forward.
Keeping Schoen in place after parting ways with the coach he hired muddies that picture. It sends mixed signals-especially when you consider that this is the same organization that moved on from Joe Judge after just two seasons.
The Giants are at a crossroads. If they want to attract a head coach who can help turn this thing around, they need to present a united front-one where the coach and GM are on the same timeline, pulling in the same direction.
Right now, that’s not the case. And unless something changes, New York could find itself settling for a second- or third-tier candidate simply because the top names don’t want to walk into a potentially unstable situation.
Joe Schoen’s future is now directly tied to the next head coach he hires. If he doesn’t get this decision right-and fast-the Giants could be looking at another reset before the ink even dries on the next playbook.