Realistic Joe Schoen says Giants are behind the chains, have a lot of ground to make up
Giants general manager Joe Schoen answers questions at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J. on Jan 26. Credit: Noah K. Murray
Introductory news conferences are supposed to be filled with hope and optimism, promises of success and plans for the future.
Joe Schoen, the new general manager of the Giants and the honoree at Wednesday’s shindig, stood there talking about the bad roster he has inherited ("some positions are devoid of talent"), the mismanaged salary cap he’ll have to mend (‘it’s a concern and it’s real") and the timeline he has for bringing the Giants back into contention ("it’s not going to happen overnight"). Each comment he made, each question he answered, seemed to paint an even gloomier picture of the franchise he is charged with fixing.
Schoen was introduced on a stage in the team’s fieldhouse flanked by two banners celebrating the championship squads from 1986 and 1990. At the other end of the building dangled similar tapestries for the 2007 and 2011 teams.
Those glory days have never seemed further away than they were on Wednesday.
"I don’t take this lightly," he said of his new job and new responsibilities.
Nor should he, given how heavy of a lift he is attempting.
Schoen is the fifth general manager in Giants history and walks into what is inarguably the second-worst situation of his predecessors. Only George Young, who came aboard a rotten-hulled ship in 1979 — the year Schoen was born — can possibly claim to have started from a lower rung or have had less to work with at the beginning of his tenure. These Giants haven’t won a postseason game in a decade, have been to the playoffs just once since then, and have had five straight seasons with 10 or more losses.
The enormity of the task is not lost on Schoen, though he may be a little disconnected from the disgust those in the New York area have for this team’s most recent misadventures compared to the quasi-struggles he went through in Buffalo as assistant general manager the past five seasons.
Suggesting that the Bills’ turnaround was not as abrupt as it seemed, he noted that his first year with the team they went 9-7 and only barely made the playoffs. What Giants fan wouldn’t have loved for that to have happened just once in the last five years? He pointed out that his second year in Buffalo the Bills went 6-10. That would have been the best season of the last five for this franchise. And he said that when the Bills lost to the Patriots in that windswept Monday night game in December people were "crushing" them for it, calling them "paper tigers." That loss dropped their record to 7-5. The Giants have not been above .500 at any point in these past five seasons of misery.
It is, ultimately, the job Schoen and general manager Brandon Beane did in Buffalo that drew the Giants to him as a candidate. It’s also what the Giants hope he can replicate for them.
"He’s seen how it should be done," co-owner John Mara said. "We’re in a similar situation to what they were in four or five years ago."
There were other things Mara said impressed him about Schoen, including his eye for talent, his poise and — he mentioned it twice — his background. Schoen started his NFL journey in ticket sales for the Panthers fresh out of college, graduating on a Saturday and starting his new job on a Monday. In the 21 years since he has climbed through the ranks of scouting departments in Carolina, Miami and Buffalo to now one of the 32 most prestigious jobs in the league.
"He started at the very bottom and worked his way up," Mara said.
Just like the Giants are going to have to do.
Cue the rays of sunshine. Finally.
"We’re going to roll up our sleeves," Schoen said. "I promise you that I will do everything in my power to build a team that will make you proud, on the field and off the field. We’re going to have to find a way. That’s what we’re here for. We can all talk about what the problems are but our job is to find solutions."
When the team brought Schoen in from Buffalo to New Jersey for his in-person interview last week the travel plans had to be made in a hurry and there were not many options. Schoen wound up on a flight but was stuck, Mara said, with "a middle seat in the rear of the plane next to the restroom."
That’s kind of where the Giants are now. The first-class teams are still alive in the postseason. There are some business-class seats for other teams to be somewhat comfortable. Mostly there are coach seats that are lumpy and crammed with the also-rans of the league.
And then there are the Giants. Right next to the restroom.
"He never complained a bit about it," Mara said of Schoen’s reaction to the less than luxurious travel accommodations.
It was, of course, a pretty short flight to endure.
The Giants have been stuck in steerage for most of the past decade.
If Schoen can get them an upgrade —– even if it’s not to first class — maybe Wednesday will be remembered more for the start of a new era rather than a rehashing of the sins of the old one.
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.
