Jason Burgos
The New York Giants secured the services of the coach they most wanted this offseason. However, an interesting rumor suggests a surprising option who would have been the No. 2 choice if they did not finalize an agreement with John Harbaugh.
It was unclear who the NY Giants would hire after they took the bold step of firing Brian Daboll in November. There were some good options on the market, like Mike McCarthy or Kevin Stefanski, but none that truly excited the team’s fans. Then the Baltimore Ravens gifted Big Blue the perfect option.
When they fired Harbaugh after 18 seasons with the franchise, the NY Giants aggressively pursued the 63-year-old. After offering him all the money he and his staff would need, and restructuring the organization to better align with what he had in Baltimore, they finalized an agreement with their replacement for Daboll.
Harbaugh’s hiring has created a ton of excitement among NY Giants fans about their potential not just in 2026, but in the years ahead. However, in a different timeline, those big asks from the one-time Super Bowl winner end up being too much for the team, and they pick a different person to be their new head coach.
But who could that have been? Reports early in the NY Giants interview process suggested Stefanski, the recently fired Cleveland Browns coach, was a favorite to get the job. That makes sense because once he was out of the running for the job in New York, the Atlanta Falcons snapped him up soon after.
Darren Rizzi would have been NY Giants head coach if not for John Harbaugh?
However, an intriguing new report suggests Stefanski probably wasn’t the No. 2 option, and instead a surprise choice emerged as a serious contender.
“John Harbaugh was always The One, but the candidate who did the best job in the interviews might’ve been Denver’s Darren Rizzi,” The Athletic’s NY Giants reporter Ian O’Connor reported. “Joe Schoen was totally blown away by him.”
Rizzi currently serves as the special teams and assistant head coach for the Denver Broncos. Of the available options, he has not gotten as much attention as veteran head coaches and the top coordinators in this year’s hiring period. However, being a top coach on the No. 1 seed in the AFC, and a team that probably reaches the Super Bowl if Bo Nix were healthy, is a pretty good sign about his abilities as a coach.
