What a concept! Giants' Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll actually know what they're doing
Giants head coach Brian Daboll, left, speaks to GM Joe Schoen during practice at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Jan. 19 in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: Corey Sipkin
Not so long ago, in 2021, an executive from an opposing team stood on the MetLife Stadium field before a game against the Giants and surveyed what he was seeing.
“It will take the Giants,” he said, “10 years to clean this up and to be competitive again.”
Excuse me? Ten years?
We’ll spare you the rehash of those days for the Giants. The bumbles and stumbles and “what-the-heck-is-going-on?” moments.
Fast-forward to this week’s NFL Scouting Combine. In a brief conversation in Indianapolis, an executive from an AFC team said of general manager Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll: “Those two guys know what they’re doing.”
Indeed. At this point, only the biggest of skeptics would say otherwise.
Consider: Daboll started proving himself in his first game as head coach, against the Titans, and never stopped. His Coach of the Year award is shiny and new.
This week at the Combine, the media, especially reporters covering the Giants, saw Schoen in his first real go-round in which he could assess the recent past and look ahead to the future.
Yes, he inherited quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley. Schoen intends to keep both in Giants uniforms. The cleanest outcome — and one the Giants from ownership on down are hoping comes true — is for Jones to sign a long-term deal, leaving the franchise tag available for Barkley if needed.
The Giants want both players back, as does ownership.
“We’ve been in constant contact with [Jones’] agents,” Schoen said, adding that more talks are scheduled. He also said he has spoken with Barkley’s agent.
Instead of treating this kind of information like state secrets, Schoen answered questions. The part of the job that entails dealing with the media is, certainly, not too big for him.
Schoen also told reporters that he is “cautiously optimistic” when it comes to retaining both Jones and Barkley. He added this: “You have to go through hard times before you come out the other end with better times with negotiations. We’re trying to work through it. Obviously, we’d like to have them both back. They know how we feel about both of them and again, we’re still working through it.”
It's been a while since the Giants have had a general manager who answered questions like a regular person.
Honestly, it’s refreshing.
(Worth a brief aside: When Schoen was hired by the Giants on Jan. 21, 2022, his former boss, Bills general manager Brandon Beane, could not wait to jump on Zoom to answer questions and assure everyone that Schoen was the right person for the job. That says a lot.)
When Schoen was asked at the Combine, not for the first time, if there is “any doubt” that Jones will be the Giants' quarterback in 2023, he answered with one word: “No.”
No ambiguity there.
Every general manager in football is asked about his quarterback and his star players. Where Schoen also has shined is in answering the more obscure — or at least not as obvious — query.
Asked an interesting question about whether Daboll prefers for his receivers to be of different shapes and sizes, almost like a basketball lineup, Schoen said: “Dabs is great about that. He wants guys who can separate. If you can separate, no matter how tall, short, wide, if you can separate, we’ll find a way to use them within the offense, whether it’s outside, inside or slot. That’s one of the unique skills that Daboll has is taking the players and the skill set that he has and developing the offense around their skill set.”
That kind of thinking helped lead to Isaiah Hodgins being plucked off the waiver wire in November from the Bills. Hodgins already has signed a one-year deal with the Giants this offseason.
Asked about the interior of the offensive line, and the possibility that help there could be found cheaper and younger, Schoen said there is a “comfort level” in knowing the players you are paying. He used Mark Glowinski, who played for offensive line coach Bobby Johnson in Indianapolis, as one example, and Jon Feliciano, who joined the Giants from the Bills, as another.
Schoen made it clear that he values experience and “football character” when it comes to roster-building.
Schoen doesn’t give away team secrets, but he also doesn’t sugarcoat. For example, he left the impression earlier this week that safety Julian Love might find more lucrative opportunities elsewhere and won’t be back.
He acknowledged the dearth of defensive line depth by saying “not great” when he was asked his assessment of those behind the starters.
The Giants have work to do, holes to fill and players to continue to develop.
But when you think about it, they’ve come so far so fast.
A 10-year rebuild? That seems like crazy talk now.
Free agency awaits, followed by the draft.
Led by a couple of guys who do seem to know exactly what they’re doing.
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
