Landing John Harbaugh is a win the Giants’ whole organization badly needed

When the regular season ended last week, the New York Giants officially embarked on their fifth head coaching search in the 10 years since two-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin’s unceremonious departure.

The head-coaching market appeared weak, full of uninspiring retreads and young coordinators with limited resumes. The Cleveland Browns’ firing of two-time Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski the day after the season ended added some juice to the field, and he immediately vaulted to the top of the Giants’ wish list. His stay in the top spot lasted a little more than 24 hours.

The Baltimore Ravens sent shock waves through the NFL by firing Super Bowl champion John Harbaugh on Jan. 6 after 18 highly successful seasons. Harbaugh immediately became the focus of an all-in effort by the Giants to secure the type of culture-setting coach they’ve been lacking for the past decade.

Harbaugh is on the verge of making the Giants’ dream come true, with the sides working to finalize a contract late Wednesday night, two sources directly involved in the process told The Athletic’s Ian O’Connor. According to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, Harbaugh has cancelled an interview scheduled for Thursday with the Tennessee Titans, and is prepared to become the Giants’ next head coach.

Landing Harbaugh is like hitting the inside straight the Giants have been chasing all these years. They had no way of knowing he’d be available when they fired Brian Daboll in November, nor when they made the controversial decision to retain general manager Joe Schoen and his 22-45-1 record over four seasons.

A missed 44-yard field goal by rookie kicker Tyler Loop on the final play of the NFL regular season cost the Ravens a playoff berth and set into motion Baltimore owner Steve Bisciotti’s decision to cut ties with Harbaugh after an 18-year run that featured 10 playoff berths, six AFC North titles and a Super Bowl XLVII victory.

Harbaugh became the best head-coaching free agent since — well, it’s hard to think of a candidate with Harbaugh’s resume becoming available while still in his relative prime. And it’s not as if the 63-year-old was showing signs of decline in Baltimore. He made the playoffs in three straight seasons before this year’s disappointing 8-9 finish.

That type of pedigree is why the Giants pulled out all the stops to land Harbaugh. This coaching search was nothing like the processes that led to the hirings of Daboll, Joe Judge, Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo.

Everyone from Daboll to Coughlin to franchise icon Eli Manning provided recommendations to Harbaugh. Co-owner Steve Tisch sent his private jet to Baltimore to pick up Harbaugh for his interview/coronation at the Giants’ facility on Wednesday. That’s a bit more of a buttoned-up operation than when Judge almost missed his interview in 2020 because he got off an Amtrak train at the wrong Penn Station.

Chris Mara, the younger brother of team president and CEO John Mara, traveled to Baltimore on Sunday for lunch and a meeting with Harbaugh at the coach’s house. That was the first in-person meeting with an executive from any team in the Harbaugh sweepstakes.

It’s exceptionally notable that Chris Mara played such a prominent role in the process since he has mostly operated in the background as an owner. He has filled various roles in the personnel department throughout his time with the franchise, but John Mara has been the head of the organization internally and externally.

With John Mara battling cancer, Chris Mara is poised to step into a greater leadership role. The Harbaugh hire could have major implications for the legacies of both brothers. There has been no word on John Mara’s prognosis, but this could be his last major move as the steward of the franchise that has been in his family for 101 years. For Chris Mara, playing a role in landing Harbaugh could be a monumental first step if he takes the reins.

Securing Harbaugh is also a much-needed victory for Schoen. Even as the Giants closed in on Harbaugh, the embattled GM’s presence lingered as a potential detriment.

Harbaugh benefited from working with a world-class personnel department in Baltimore, inheriting the pieces of an all-time great defense when he was hired in 2008. Harbaugh worked closely with legendary general manager Ozzie Newsome for his first 11 years before collaborating with Eric DeCosta, who has been in Baltimore’s front office since 1996.

Giants ownership and Schoen clearly were able to sell Harbaugh on building an effective partnership. Harbaugh is expected to have a strong voice on personnel decisions. His leverage and Schoen’s tenuous status should allow Harbaugh to take the lead on roster decisions. And if it doesn’t work out, Harbaugh won’t be going anywhere.

Schoen deserves credit for assembling the pieces that made the Giants the most attractive destination for Harbaugh. And now the expectation for the Giants will be to win immediately with a proven coach.

Harbaugh provides instant credibility to a franchise that has a .365 winning percentage since its last Super Bowl win after the 2011 season, which ranks 29th in the NFL. His reputation will command respect in a locker room that is craving accountability.

Harbaugh arrives with a track record of assembling quality coaching staffs, which is vital for a former special teams coordinator who doesn’t call plays. Harbaugh’s staff will come into focus in the near future, with offensive coordinator Todd Monken an obvious candidate to follow him from Baltimore and an array of proteges as options to fill the defensive coordinator role, including Tennessee Titans DC Dennard Wilson and Miami Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver.

Perhaps most encouraging about Harbaugh’s time in Baltimore is that he succeeded with two quarterbacks with polar opposite play styles. Harbaugh won a Super Bowl with immobile gunslinger Joe Flacco (and a dominant defense) and then oversaw Lamar Jackson’s development from a raw athletic specimen into a two-time MVP. Harbaugh now will work with Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, whose promising rookie year was one of the biggest draws in this coaching search.

Amid the euphoria, it bears noting that the Giants are getting the 63-year-old version of Harbaugh, not the 45-year-old who made the playoffs in his first five seasons in Baltimore, capped by a Super Bowl victory over his brother, Jim. There are reasons the Ravens moved on from such an accomplished coach — Bisciotti said he was prepared to fire Harbaugh even if Loop made the field goal to send Baltimore to the playoffs.

But the Giants are in a much different place than the Ravens, who grew frustrated by premature playoff exits with an MVP-caliber quarterback. The Giants have been so bad for so long that the baseline level of competency provided by Harbaugh will be celebrated.

That’s why it was so important for the Giants to close this deal. There may be greater upside with a 30-something coordinator who has never been a head coach. But the Giants weren’t in a position to roll the dice again after crapping out on the Daboll, Judge and McAdoo hires.

Despite all of their recent losing and dysfunction, the Giants have maintained their status as a storied franchise, especially in the eyes of an old-school football lifer like Harbaugh. Losing him to the likes of the Tennessee Titans or Atlanta Falcons would have been a devastating blow at a fragile time for the franchise.

Landing Harbaugh was the best possible outcome when the Giants set out on the unpredictable path of a coaching search. It’s the biggest win for the franchise in a long time. And now, with Harbaugh on board, the belief is many more wins will follow.

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