A new report adds fuel to the rumors that John Harbaugh is now the top decision-maker for the New York Giants roster, and general manager Joe Schoen’s role has been greatly diminished.
When the NY Giants fired Brian Daboll in November, they had a big challenge ahead of them. They needed to get the hiring of his replacement right after going through four different head coaches since moving on from two-time Super Bowl winner Tom Coughlin in 2017.
However, they were gifted a fantastic replacement option when the Baltimore Ravens decided to move on from John Harbaugh last month after 18 seasons with the franchise. Once he became available, the NY Giants moved swiftly to acquire his services.
Yet, it wasn’t easy. After reportedly agreeing on the financial terms of a deal, the one-time Super Bowl champion requested major structural changes to the football side of the organization. To make it more similar to what he had in Baltimore, including only answering to the owner, not GM Joe Schoen.
NY Giants GM relegated to role as head of scouting?
Once an agreement was reached, there has been a lot of speculation about Schoen’s adjusted role and whether it amounted to a demotion. Well, a snippet from a new report from The Athletic’s Ian O’Connor offers new details of the person expected to usurp key responsibilities from the NY Giants GM.
“Harbaugh was heavily involved in the hiring of the NFL’s chief administrative officer, Dawn Aponte, as the Giants’ senior VP of football operations and strategy. She’ll oversee analytics, salary-cap management, and player contract negotiations. As another sign of Harbaugh’s considerable influence in the organization, Aponte will report to him,” O’Connor reports.
Adding to the idea that Schoen is the NY Giants GM only in title, not actual influence, is Pat Leonard of New York Daily News, who added more to what the GM currently does for the team.
“Was told last week that Joe Schoen is basically relegated to handling scouting,” Leonard wrote. “Rest of the building reports to Dawn, Dawn reports to John. This is continuing to go exactly as we told you it would when Harbaugh got hired.”
