New Giants' Dynamic Duo Eyes Building a Winner
Since the early days of football, teamwork has been an essential factor among more successful teams.
But as the game evolved into a multi-billion dollar business, the teamwork concept on the field has extended more and more to the front office and coaching staff, who must work in synergy to ensure a team has what it needs to be competitive.
Gone are the days of the old school method in which a general manager picked out the players for the coaches to develop. Instead, coaches are getting more involved in identifying the players they want to run their schemes, and they’re trusting the front office people to find those players and ensure the franchise is getting the best possible value.
For the Giants, general manager Joe Schoen and assistant general manager Brandon Brown will lead that open casting call for the Giants this off-season. Thus far, Beane and Brown have not only hit the ground running but they are united in their vision to turn around the misfortunes of a Giants team that has struggled to win since Super Bowl XLVI in 2011.
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"With Joe, we've been like peanut butter and jelly. Just in sync,” Brown said on the Giants Huddle: Front Office Edition podcast. When you're a kid, and you go to camp, and you meet a guy that becomes your friend, you're like, 'I didn't know I needed this kind of friend.' That's how it's been with Joe."
One reason for the two men instantly hitting it off is that they share a similar football background. The 33-year-old Brown spent the previous five seasons overseeing the team's pro scouting department and doing some work on the college scouting side. Before that, he was with the Colts for two seasons in a scouting role.
Schoen, 42, also began his career as a scout. Working his way up the ranks, he became the Dolphins’ director of pro personnel before being recruited by Beane to join him in Buffalo as the team’s assistant general manager.
Schoen and Brown have already immersed themselves into evaluating both the college pool of players and the free-agent market, having consulted with new head coach Brian Daboll and his coordinators (Mike Kafka, offense; Wink Martindale, defense; and Thomas McGaughey, special teams), regarding their visions for their respective units.
They have also applied their evaluation process to the current roster to assess where the holes are and where the priorities lie. And once that is determined, Brown and Schoen will have a plan to ensure they’re getting optimal value while also filling what the coaching staff needs.
"It's going to fit with what (Head Coach Brian) Daboll wants to do. It's going to fit what Wink (Martindale) wants to do; it's going to fit what T-Mac (Thomas McGaughey) wants to do on special teams,” Brown said.
“When we do that, it allows us when we want to make the big splashes, to do it in a very conscious and efficient way. We have the right checks and balances because we know we've crossed our T's, dotted our I's, and done everything in the right way so that there is no negligence in spending, no negligence in evaluation.
"It's very much like if you're in a restaurant, it's the chef to sous-chef relationship. We can't go out and 'buy the groceries' unless we know exactly what the recipe calls for."
Once they know what ingredients are needed—besides football, Brown said they would be looking for solid citizens that handled themselves well both on and off the field—Brown said that their goal is to leave no stone unturned in finding the players that are a fit.
“Football players come from all walks of life. If you have the developmental mindset and physical traits and the aptitude to learn, then it’s our job ... to maximize you,” he said.
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