The fact that hiring John Harbaugh as head coach meant the Giants would be required to change their front office structure was no small story. In fact, it was such a big factor that it was part of the reason for a multi-day delay between when the team announced its intentions to hire Harbaugh and when the deal was finalized.
We’d only really gotten small tidbits about how different the structure would be, but Ian O’Connor of The Athletic dropped a few key details this evening that certainly show significant potential change.
Before O’Connor’s report today, the tidbits that we’d gotten were minor. Harbaugh wanted to have roster input. Harbaugh would report directly to owner John Mara and not general manager Joe Schoen. It was a similar situation to what Harbaugh had grown accustomed to in Baltimore and didn’t seem to be shaking up the boat too much. Schoen wanted to be sure Harbaugh wouldn’t be importing front office staffers to slowly take control of a front office that had been Schoen’s domain.
That appears to still be mostly the case, but there was one hire of Harbaugh’s that appears to be mixing things up. Per O’Connor, Harbaugh was pivotal in the team’s efforts to hire Dawn Aponte away from the league office. Aponte’s position with New York has been designated as senior vice president of football operations and strategy. According to Pat Leonard of NY Daily News Sports, she will be responsible for “strategic planning for football operations, analytics, salary cap management, player contract negotiations, compliance, and working closely with the college and pro personnel departments.”
That’s not all Leonard says. If it seems like several of those responsibilities would usually reside with the general manager, it’s because they would. Per Leonard, Schoen has essentially been “relegated to handling scouting” and the “rest of the building reports to Dawn.” In addition, both O’Connor and Leonard report that Aponte will report to Harbaugh, so it is beginning to look as if Harbaugh is encroaching quite a bit more than initially understood on the duties of the general manager.
O’Connor’s report doesn’t pose the situation as nearly as much of a takeover as Leonard is painting it out to be, though. He includes quotes from Harbaugh on how impressed he’s been with Schoen and how well they are working together as they both work on building the team’s new staff and future roster. But, if what Leonard claims is true, it’s hard not to believe that Schoen is getting quietly pushed into a corner. The Giants paid a lot of money and agreed to a lot of concessions in order to bring Harbaugh in to lead their team. Time will tell how each new change will affect the team’s future success.
On the one hand, it sounds a lot like Harbaugh handpicking Aponte to usurp Schoen and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him ousted after this year. The way front office turnover and draft preparation work with the calendar, it’s very normal for even totally new front office leadership to take most of a year to change people over anyway. On the other hand, Schoen has done a pretty good job in the draft recently, and most people saw Paton being gone soon after Payton arrived in Denver (still confusing name-wise) and they seem to be symbiotic enough, so you never know for sure.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Schoen shown the door some time before or after the Draft. Once upon a time the Jets replaced their GM following the Draft.
Minnesota has said they will wait until after the draft to hire a GM. I don’t perdict that working out.
The Paton-Payton dynamic in Denver is unique, and you’re right to bring it up as the best case scenario for this type of gamble. To me, it’s the only one that worked out where a GM lost authority and yet managed to recover with the new coach still on. It feels like New York could be giving Schoen a chance to prove his value for a year, but they’ll probably transition him out of that role this year and give Harbaugh another GM next season (be it Aponte or someone else).
This sounds like an absolute mess. The GM is just handling scouting and the SVP is reporting to the Head Coach? Who gets final say on contracts, FAs, and the draft? This will implode next year.
RicketyKricket:
Where is the mess? Just sounds more collaborative. Harbough is the main decision-maker.
This sounds very dysfunctional. I find it unlikely the Giants rise to prominence again with this internal structure.
Mustard Tiger:
You put too much emphasis on reports. Who knows exactly how things are structured internally there? Sounds like Harbaugh the main decision-maker. I don’t see a structural issue.
I’m going off the report to state my opinion. Which is why I wrote “it sounds like.” If this isn’t the way it will work then that would change my opinion.
I’ve worked in corporate management. I know from experience that taking the former boss (Schoen), stripping him of most of his power, but leaving him in the building is not a good plan. There will be employees loyal to him and resentful of the new structure. Plus Schoen is likely to be disgruntled. This makes for a very bad work environment. Expect lots of negative confidential reports pointing fingers at the other front office faction if the season is not successful.
If they wanted to neuter Schoen and have a Harbaugh loyalist run things, they should have just fired Schoen.
Mustard Tiger:
Well, the whole I find the Giants return to prominence unlikely in the structure is hyperbole in my opinion. Now think of it from Schoen’s point of view. He’s not disgruntled. He’s happy to have a job. And if the Giants are successful, he’ll get part of the credit. They might have restructured power, but they didn’t completely eliminate his importance to organization, or else they would’ve fired him.
Because the previous structure was catapulting the Giants back to prominence….
Let it all cook, only time will tell if this recipe will create a winning dish.
Schoen will also be grilling hot dogs at a concession stands.
Harbaugh’s new role sounds like that of Belichick at the end (the years without Brady). We know how well that went…
Sherminator:
Yeah, because one situation has anything to do with the other right? Belichick was in charge that way for a long time, not just the end. You’re saying that just to fit your narrative.
And Harbaugh was endorsed for the job by an ex-New Yorker now living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Looks like the Giants got the jump on Hollywood in creating a “Dawn of the Dead” sequel 🙂
Schoen has 1 year left on his contract. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets an extension either just before or after the draft. If not, I suspect he’ll be let go and Aponte will take over as GM.
To me this is a way to keep things in tact until after the draft, then in essence firing Schoen as he should have been after the season. It’s all optics and the stripping of power is just a way of firing you without firing you.
Same way the Bills got rid of Whaley. McDermot was there a year before they replaced him with Beane.
Agreed. It seems like this is is a transition style arrangement for a year. It does give Schoen, at least ostensibly, a chance to thrive in the role that could keep him there long term. The Broncos sort of pulled this off with Paton, but Paton had more control than Schoen seems to be retaining in that arrangement. I’ve not seen any other example than Denver where having the GM concede so much authority has worked out symbiotically with a new coach, though.
The Eagles are an example, actually, of the reverse-the GM conceded power, had a few successful years where he proved his worth, and then took back over when the coach flamed out. That was truly a unique situation, but it still goes to show that these things don’t normally end with both the GM and coach staying in power for long. If Schoen is just a glorified scout, as the story makes him seem, eventually some sort of disagreement is going to occur between him, Aponte, and possibly Harbaugh. How they handle that is really what’s going to determine the chances of this working long term.
In the best case scenario for Schoen, he needs to do a smash-up terrific job in this role, or the Giants are going to replace him anyway. We’ll see next year if he’s still a part of the picture, or if New York moves Aponte or someone else into that role.