Why John Harbaugh Will Avoid This Giants Coaching Misstep

The last time the Giants hired a head coach who spent 10+ year with another organization in the same role, it didn't work out so well.

New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

With their hiring of former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh as the 24th head coach of the , he becomes just the second Giants head coaching hire in the modern era to come from another organization, where he spent at least 10 seasons as head coach.

The first one, Dan Reeves, who came to the Giants after 12 seasons with the Denver Broncos, in which he amassed a 110-73-1 record and three AFC Championships, didn’t work out so well for the Giants or Reeves.

His tenure, which ran from 1993-1996, saw Reeves go 31-33, after getting the team off to a promising 11-5 mark in his first season.

But as things slid downhill from there, Reeves began to grumble publicly about the organization’s power structure, particularly taking umbrage at then-team psychologist Dr. Joel Goldberg, whom Reeves opined was undermining the scouting process with his famed psychological tests.  

“This club has very good scouts,” Reeves once said. “They work hard, and the coaches work to put in their input on players. Then you can walk in there the day of the draft, and a number of those names are completely off the board because of some psychological test.

“When a psychologist (Dr. Goldberg) has more to do with the draft than the head coach, I have a problem with that. We’re missing an awful lot of players, and then I see the way they’ve gone on and played for other teams.”

Reeves was eventually fired by the Giants as his unhappiness with the organization's structure grew. But for anyone who might have an iota of concern that history could repeat itself with the Giants and Harbaugh, that hardly seems likely. 

Why history will NOT repeat itself with Harbaugh

Despite earlier speculative reports that one of Harbaugh’s requirements was to bring in his own personnel guy who would supersede general manager Joe Schoen’s authority, that was never the case. 

Harbaugh has been no stranger to working with general managers, having done so in Baltimore with Ozzie Newsome and Eric DeCosta, and having enjoyed success with both men as well as a professional and personal relationship.

But in potentially going to a new organization to work with Schoen, someone he is believed to have had little contact with in league circles, it would be understandable if Harbaugh had just a tiny amount of trepidation.

Dan Reeves's tenure with the Giants fell flat. | RVR Photos-Imagn Images

Thanks to Schoen’s proactive approach of initiating contact with Harbaugh as soon as he was allowed to and building rapport through phone/video calls.

By the time the two men met face-to-face during Harbaugh’s formal interview on Wednesday, any trepidation by Harbaugh subsided to the point where he felt comfortable enough to agree to take the Giants job.

That’s a credit to the Giants and to Schoen for being both strategic and sincere in their pursuit of Harbaugh. This was not a case of Schon simply sweet-talking to Harbaugh and telling him what he wanted to hear, only to turn into a controlling ogre once Harbaugh’s name landed on the dotted line.

It was a legitimate attempt to build a collaborative relationship, one that the Giants hope will extend well beyond the five years Harbaugh’s new contract calls for as he and Schoen look to restore the glory in a Giants franchise that has been missing for the better part of the last decade-plus.  

There is also Harbaugh himself. By all accounts, he’s not a control freak who throws a tantrum if he doesn’t get his way; if he had, he probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as he did. 

In short, it’s the start of one of the most promising head coach-general manager relationships the Giants have had since Tom Coughlin and Ernie Accorsi. Will it be all sunshine and roses? 

No relationship ever is. But it promises to be a productive one based on communication and respect for one another, which makes for a solid foundation.

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