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The New York Giants belong to John Harbaugh now, and will be for the foreseeable future. They’ve given him the keys to their kingdom, convinced he’s the only one who can help them fix their decade-old mess.
So how, exactly, is he going to do it?
The good news is the cupboard of talent isn’t exactly bare. He’s got a promising young quarterback and a roster with talented but underachieving pieces. It’s up to Harbaugh to make them fit, to change their losing culture, and to teach them how to win again.
Here are the first five things he’ll need to do.
1. Restore accountability and discipline to the locker room.
It was a shock to everyone late in the season when Abdul Carter, the Giants’ defensive rookie star, was benched twice in three weeks for supposedly sleeping through a walkthrough and then arriving late to a team meeting. But the real shock was that he had gotten away with similar violations of team rules multiple times before.
That’s the easiest way for a coach to lose the locker room, when players sense a lack of discipline and accountability and see teammates getting away with things they shouldn’t. Some grow resentful. Others decide they can break the rules too. Soon the ship starts to sink.
John Harbaugh will be tasked to maximize the talents of several recent first-rounders — like Abdul Carter. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
So Harbaugh needs to stop that from Day 1, and he needs to lean on veteran leaders in his locker room to become his enforcers. Whether it’s fines, benchings or whatever, the discipline has to be there and so do the leaders. Every player in the room needs to be held accountable, and the standards need to be high.
Maybe that’s old school, but it works. The Giants hired someone the players should be able to trust, because his way has proven to work. That’s a hammer he needs to wield. And if there are players that can’t handle that, they need to go.
2. Hire proven, experienced coordinators and get out of their way.
This should be the easiest task for Harbaugh because he’s got 18 seasons of NFL experience to help him pick the right guys, and the Giants seem to be willing to pay whatever it takes to hire them.
But while it’s always nice to give a young, up-and-coming coach a shot, this isn’t the time and place for it. Much like with their head coach vacancy, the Giants can’t be a place for on-the-job training — not anymore. They need to hire someone who has done it, done it well, and brings instant credibility (and likely stability) when he stands in front of the room.
Todd Monken had a successful run as Ravens offensive coordinator alongside Harbaugh. (Photo by Getty Images/Credit Baltimore Sun)
It seems like Todd Monken is likely to follow him from Baltimore as his offensive coordinator, according to multiple sources. It’s possible that Zach Orr will do the same as defensive coordinator. Harbaugh also has lots of other experienced options on his coaching tree to choose from, too, including Greg Roman on offense and Anthony Weaver and Dennard Wilson on defense.
But the fact that they’ve all done it is huge. And since they all know Harbaugh, the relationship should be easy, and there’ll be no doubt he’ll trust them enough to let them do their jobs their way.
3. Focus personnel decisions on what helps Jaxson Dart the most
There’s so much talk about how the Ravens didn’t draft for need, they always took the best players. That’s not completely true, of course, but it’s also much easier to do when your team is loaded. The Giants are not. They have needs that must be filled.
So Harbaugh, with his new personnel power, needs to start by filling the ones that make Dart a better quarterback, because he is now the second most important person in the organization. Their entire near-term future hinges on Dart fulfilling the potential that everyone, including Harbaugh, believes he has.
So put the best pieces around him. If that’s adding a second receiver to give him a 1-2 punch with Malik Nabers, do it. If it’s new pieces along the offensive line, great. If it’s a pass-catching tight end or upgrades at running back, fine.
After a promising rookie season, Jaxson Dart needs Harbaugh to help him to not only continue growing but stay on the field. (Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images)
Harbaugh can decide, but that should be his immediate focus, not the defense. There are already plenty of workable pieces there anyway. Many in the NFL believe the Giants defense underachieved and could be a top-10 group with better coaching.
But teams can win with mediocre defenses. They don’t often win with mediocre quarterbacks. So put the pieces around Dart to give him a chance to be great.
4. Rebuild the offense around a strong rushing attack
Yes, Dart is the most important piece of Harbaugh’s plan. But if there’s one lesson that he should take from Baltimore, it’s that even with an MVP quarterback, his teams were at their best when they were dominating on the ground. The Ravens were a top 10 rushing team in each of the past eight seasons. It’s not a coincidence that they went to the playoffs and had double-digit wins six times.
Running the ball has not been the Giants’ strength, with the exception being 2022, when they ranked fourth in the league behind the 1-2 punch of Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones. It’s also not a coincidence that was the only year in the past nine that they went to the playoffs.
So take a page out of the Ravens’ playbook (or look down the Turnpike to Philadelphia for inspiration) and turn the Giants into a running team. Build up the offensive line (that should sound familiar), get a big running back to pair with Cam Skattebo, embrace Dart’s rushing ability and make “run first” the team’s offensive philosophy.
The Giants need to reestablish a strong running game. Cam Skattebo is a good place to start. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
Jackson became a superstar on a run-first team, so it’s not like the passing game has to be de-emphasized. In fact, a strong running game should help it.
And by the way, it’s worth noting that a lot of the Ravens’ late-season and postseason failures over the years have stemmed from Harbaugh abandoning the run game at the wrong times. So learn a lesson from that, too.
5. Project confidence — and not just in the opening press conference.
Each of the Giants’ past four head coaches did an excellent job at their opening press conference, and then quickly turned into media disasters. No, that’s not the most important part of their job, and image isn’t necessarily everything.
But it’s important. And you better believe in this social media age that players see and hear everything.
Harbaugh’s obviously experienced at this, so it shouldn’t be a problem. He won’t fall into the monotone, short answers of Brian Daboll, who seemed like he was trying to do a poor Bill Belichick impersonation. He won’t look as lost as Ben McAdoo or go off on weird rants like Joe Judge. He knows what he has to do:
Project strength. Project confidence.
Brian Daboll was the fourth coach the Giants quickly cycled through since Tom Coughlin resigned following the 2015 season. (Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Make everyone — fans, the organization, and especially the players — believe that he’s in complete control and everything will be all right. Make it look and sound like he always has the answers, even if he’s not sharing everything. That’s what Tom Coughlin did for the Giants years ago. Even those who didn’t like him in his early years knew he had a plan and had no doubt that he was in charge and had a firm grasp on what was going right or wrong.
Harbaugh can handle the spotlight and any added media pressure from being in New York. But that podium in front of the cameras is still important. It’s where he can project leadership. It’s where he can get everyone — players, fans, owners, and every person in the organization — to really believe in what he’s doing.
It’s something a coach can’t just do behind the scenes.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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