NFL general managers typically have longer shelf lives than head coaches. That certainly has been the case with the Giants.
But it is only reasonable to separate those evaluations when there is a clear demarcation between the GM’s and coach’s responsibilities — and when the on-field product is underperforming relative to a front office’s personnel promise.
Here in New Jersey, though, the Giants are Joe Schoen’s show.
He watches film with coach Brian Daboll and the rest of the staff and team. He enters the locker room and talks to players. He runs the draft. He re-signed the quarterback. He helps make gameday lineup decisions. He is often in the middle of the field during practice.
There is no part of their operation he does not touch.
So it would be impossible for John Mara and Steve Tisch to blame Daboll but not Schoen for the Giants’ 2-8 record, consistently regressing roster, league-worst offense and all of the embarrassing results and truths that have ensued from this mismanagement.
Schoen seemed to understand that during Tuesday’s press conference in East Rutherford, N.J. The normally overconfident and combative third-year GM sounded nervous and contrite, like someone who knows he screwed up, just lost to the Carolina Panthers and is near the end.
He mustered some hollow arguments in his own defense: like insisting his team is young and “not far off,” claiming “we’re not getting blown out” despite a 45-10 combined score in losses to the Eagles and Bengals; and citing a 1-5 record in “close” games as a badge of honor.
But Schoen generated no true evidence of progress or promise three years into running the franchise, outside of his selection of fifth-round running back Tyrone Tracy — and that sliver of promise pales in comparison to the MVP campaign Saquon Barkley is building in Philadelphia.
When a salesman starts running out of ideas to attract customers, that’s typically when it’s time to close the store. And if Mara and Tisch really buy the version of the truth that Schoen meekly tried to sell on Tuesday, then they’re more lost than anyone realized.
Schoen still knows judgment day is coming, so on Tuesday he appeared to be subtly laying the groundwork to survive a Daboll firing if this catastrophic season doesn’t turn around.
The GM said he expects to be back even if the team doesn’t win down the stretch.
“Yes,” he said.
He said ownership has “confidence in the plan.”But he rejected the suggestion that he did not give the coaching staff a good enough roster.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
So if it’s not the players, it must be the coaching, right?
“No, it’s not players and it’s not one individual,” Schoen said. “That’d be an easy fix if we could say, ‘Hey, it’s this.’ Everybody’s got their hand in this, myself included. It starts with me.”
Yes, it does. And even Schoen could no longer defend his roster-building mistakes that dug the Giants into a deeper hole after their minimal and fleeting success of 2022.
“You come off a winning season, some of the issues were maybe masked or you’re blinded a little bit by it because of the success,” Schoen said of a 9-7-1 season with a Wild Card win that ended with a 38-7 butt-whooping in Philadelphia. “Then once we extended Daniel [Jones], you try to accelerate it because of the way that contract was structured.
“There were some parts of the process, when I evaluated it, that maybe were overlooked or I could have done a better job in the evaluation process or player procurement process,” the GM added. “That’s part of growth. I did make some mistakes or some decisions I wish I could have back … I like my team. … I truly believe we’re heading in the right direction.”
Those mistakes are the reasons the Giants are worse off now than when Schoen took over, though. They are the underpinnings of the franchise’s perennial irrelevance.
This is a GM who has spent a third-round pick, two fourth-round picks and a restructured contract on three tight ends in three years and still hasn’t gotten the position right between Daniel Bellinger, Darren Waller and Theo Johnson.
This is a GM who needed to patchwork an offensive line together this offseason because his five primary additions in 2022 were draft picks Evan Neal (No. 7 overall), Josh Ezeudu and Marcus McKethan, and free agent signings Jon Feliciano and Mark Glowinski: Three of them are gone. Ezeudu can’t play. And Neal probably has seven games remaining with the team.
The Giants allowed 85 sacks last season, the second-most ever in NFL history. Then Schoen left his roster without a functional backup left tackle again in 2024, completely compromising the quarterback, offense and team, with no adequate explanation.
They have the NFL’s worst offense, averaging a league-low 15.6 points per game. They have the league’s worst run defense, allowing 5.3 yards per carry.
They are likely on the verge of shutting down Daniel Jones, although Schoen admitted when pressed that the Giants will make “the best football decision for us to win games” at quarterback after this bye week.
And Schoen’s cutthroat recent release of corner Nick McCloud was yet another decision that had players scratching and shaking their heads about the motivations behind the GM’s moves — capped by the ugly Barkley saga that played out on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks.’
Schoen’s most depressing comment on Tuesday, however, was a throwaway line. He said “we’re going to look under every rock and try to figure out solutions” to the Giants’ mess.
Under a rock? That’s where the Giants already are, in the NFL’s basement — where Schoen’s mistakes have put them.
