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NY Giants' hiring of John Harbaugh is big win for flailing franchise | Opinion
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- NY Giants' hiring of John Harbaugh is big win for flailing franchise | Opinion
The New York Giants did exactly what they needed to do. That's something that hasn't been said about that franchise in quite some time.
But they got John Harbaugh in the building and didn't let him leave. Sort of. The semantics of Harbaugh's logistics don't matter. What does matter is that the Giants and Harbaugh are finalizing a deal that makes him their next head coach, a little more than a week after the Baltimore Ravens thanked Harbaugh for 18 years of service and a Super Bowl and told him to pack his bags .
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The timing could not have been better for "Big Blue." Needing a new head man since the November firing of Brian Daboll, the Giants took the surest option on the market at a juncture in which they were prioritizing stability. Outside of Mike Tomlin, who won't be coaching in 2026 – and potentially 2027 – Harbaugh fits that requirement.
He was scheduled to meet with the Tennessee Titans on Thursday and canceled the interview. The expected contract will be similar to Harbaugh's Ravens salary and keep him as one of the best-compensated coaches in the game with a five-year deal worth about $20 million annually , Jordan Schultz reported.
Giants make first, biggest splash of NFL's coaching carousel
The Giants are first to strike in a crowded cycle, and they hired, arguably, the best candidate. It's their biggest win since Feb. 4, 2012, when the franchise – thanks to Eli Manning , Tom Coughlin and a cobbled-together defense – hosted its fourth Lombardi Trophy and second in four seasons.
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Absolutely, the Giants benefited from good fortune. Owner John Mara backed the team into a corner a year ago by effectively saying Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen were on a short leash in 2025. That left his team somewhat exposed and he had to act after another 2-8 start to the season and numerous blown leads. Harbaugh becoming available, perhaps not as much of a shock as the football world treated it, was not part of Mara's design. It worked out, though, and the cool cousin of preparation is luck.
Harbaugh's hiring, the Giants hope, should end the vicious employment cycle that has plagued the franchise since Tom Coughlin left after the 2015 season. Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge and Daboll didn't pan out.
Daboll was thought to have been "the guy." He made the playoffs in his first season, led the team to its first playoff win since Super Bowl 46 and kept his promise of being a quarterback-whisperer that propelled Daniel Jones' development. The NFL is fickle by nature. The lesson of his tenure is that there's more to being the head football coach than worrying about the quarterback.
That's one reason the Giants prioritized a CEO-style head coach with experience. The names who fit that description in the modern league are few and far between.
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This sort of move has worked for the Giants in the past. Coughlin didn't have the same level of success as Harbaugh at his first NFL stop with the Jacksonville Jaguars , but the coaching lifer joined the Giants at age 58 (Harbaugh is 63). Everybody, especially the New England Patriots , knows what happened during Coughlin's stay in New York. They have had three winning seasons since then. Only the New York Jets have a worse record than the Giants over the last 10 years, and the Giants play in a division that, until this season, didn't have a back-to-back winner for 20 years.
The Giants have a long way to go before reaching Super Bowls, but they hope that Harbaugh moves them closer than many think. They retained Schoen and praised the "young core" in the building, which includes quarterback Jaxson Dart , edge rushers Brian Burns and Abdul Carter , defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence , left tackle Andrew Thomas , running backs Tyrone Tracy and Cam Skattebo and wide receiver Malik Nabers .
Harbaugh not without warts, but his experience is relevant to Giants
Somebody has to maximize that talent, if it's truly there, and that's where Harbaugh factors in.
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Dart has a long, long way to go before reaching the level of Lamar Jackson . But Harbaugh – and this is more the Giants trusting Harbaugh to make the right hires around Dart than doing the work himself – at least has experience developing a late-first-round pick into a MVP.
Should he not become a head coach, Todd Monken , Harbaugh's offensive coordinator with the Ravens for the final three seasons (Jackson won MVP once, could have been twice), is expected to join him in the same role with the Giants, according to multiple reports . Drawing up plays for Jackson and Derrick Henry will be different than Dart and Skattebo, but he also turned Stetson Bennett into a two-time national champion with the Georgia Bulldogs in 2021 and 2022.
Harbaugh doesn't arrive perfectly wrapped. His main issue in Baltimore became that his team too often beat itself, especially on the big stage, and couldn't hold onto leads, something Giants fans have become all-too familiar with over the years. Leading football games in the fourth quarter would be a change for the Giants. Winnong those in which they lead would go a long way.
Any fan base would become frustrated with a coach whose team consistently became its own worst enemy. Maybe it was on Harbaugh and he can fix it at his next stop. Maybe it was on Harbaugh and he won't address it – and his tenure in New Jersey will be much shorter than his previous one in Maryland.
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There will be contrarians who say Harbaugh coasted for too long in Baltimore. That Ed Reed and Ray Lewis and Marshal Yanda were in the building when Harbaugh took over in 2008. The Giants, in 2026, do not care.
At long last, an adult has entered the building. The Giants have not won much lately. But they nailed the first step toward returning to victory formation.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NY Giants hire John Harbaugh as next head coach to right wayward ship
