Tom Rock: Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown shows he can thrive in a John Harbaugh-led organization
Giants assistant general manager Brandon Brown talks to the media at rookie minicamp on Saturday in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: Ed Murray
Everyone wanted to know how the dynamic between John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen was going to work. A new head coach coming in with an army of his own appointees to usurp much of the power that the returning front office once held is a situation fraught with drama, upheaval and potential conflict. It often leads to drastic changes and departures.
So far, it seems as if the two have managed to make it work.
In about four months’ time, through free agency and the draft and now with OTAs about to begin, John vs. Joe has morphed into John & Joe.
But this wasn’t ever just a one-on-one relationship watch. There were plenty of others in the organization who didn’t know quite where they stood or what they needed to do to survive the new regime and organizational flowcharts.
For many of them, this offseason probably felt like a tryout.
Brandon Brown appears to have made the team.
The Giants’ assistant general manager and Long Island product said he approached the uncertainty with the same fiery, attacking philosophy he had when he was playing football at St. Anthony’s High School or fighting as an undersized defensive back at Fordham.
“I treat every day like it’s fourth-and-1,” he told Newsday.
Well . . . move those chains!
“Brandon, gosh, he's been great,” said Harbaugh, who didn’t know Brown before the two began working together in January. “You ask a question and he knows what he's talking about. He's very thorough in his explanation . . . He's high-energy, very smart, knows the league inside and out. I’m very impressed.”
Not everyone can thrive in a Harbaugh-led organization. There are demands and sacrifices that don’t exist for all teams. Brown seems to be one of the people who can thrive in it.
He said he has focused on something Harbaugh told the entire staff very early on: “Mission over men.”
No egos, no looking for credit, no chaffing when you are overruled. Everyone heading in the same direction.
“Every day I step inside the building I think, ‘How can I provide value? How can I solve problems whether they are small or big?’ ” Brown told Newsday. “My thing was free agency, the draft, those were the most important periods and touch points as we were integrating with the new coaching staff. It was understanding their vision for what this team was going to look like and helping to present the best options for us to execute that.”
The result is a roster that has added size and strength at nearly every position this offseason, the most recent additions being first-round draft picks Arvell Reese and Francis Mauigoa, cornerback Colton Hood and receiver Malachi Fields. They also added Tremaine Edmunds, Isaiah Likely and Patrick Ricard in free agency.
Harbaugh wanted to make the Giants a bigger, more physical team. Back when he was a player that certainly would have excluded Brown, who used his speed to make up for his 5-9 frame. In this front office, though, he was able to provide the pounds that were requested.
“You talk about ‘building the bully,’ all of our players from different positions, they have that mentality,” Brown said. “A pit bull mentality. They may not all be in the trenches, but they bring something that's different.”
Brown, who grew up in Glen Cove, got his start as a front office intern with the Jets in 2012. He then went to work for Boston College, the Colts and the Eagles, before he was hired as Schoen’s second-in-command with the Giants in 2022.
That tenure started out great with a playoff run the first year back in New York. Since then, though, it’s been a pretty inglorious stretch for the front office. Schoen has taken the majority of the hits for letting Saquon Barkley walk, botching the Daniel Jones decision and missing on more than a few high draft picks, but Brown was part of those, too. They may not have been his ultimate calls, but he was certainly influential.
The result has been a few interviews for open general manager positions throughout the league, but no job offers yet. The one thing missing from Brown’s resume to take that next step, those around the league seem to feel, is being part of a consistent winning program. That is what allowed him to jump from the Eagles to the Giants, and it is what will help him get from the Giants to his next job, too.
Perhaps Harbaugh will help provide that. Maybe this new system and new organizational philosophy will turn the Giants into perennial playoff contenders. That’s the goal, right?
And if it happens, maybe it actually will be Harbaugh’s arrival that leads directly to Brown leaving the Giants and a big overhaul in the front office staffing.
Just not the way many expected it would.
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.
