John Harbaugh Attempting To Make the Giants "Special" Again

The new head coach spent decades coaching special teams before becoming a head coach, and he's already reshaping the Giants' punter, kicker, and long snapper competitions to match.

New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Special teams. It's the only one of football's three units that scores points or swings field position every time its players take the field.

New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh understands this all too well. He was the special teams coordinator under Andy Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles from 1998-2006 after coaching special teams in college at Morehead State (1988), Cincinnati (1989-96) and Indiana (1997).

And then Harbaugh paid more than casual attention to the unit during his 18 seasons as the lead man with the Baltimore Ravens, who were often among the NFL's leaders in special-teams performance.

"I think our guys know it's important," Harbaugh recently told Giants.com. "I never met a good football player that didn't want to play special teams, that didn't have fun doing it because it's the epitome of football.

"Blocking, tackling, running, hitting, that's what special teams is. So all the great players, the [Brian] Dawkinses, the Ed Reeds, those guys all wanted to play special teams.

"At minimum, you've got 40 yards right off the bat on the punt and kickoff. ... There's more space, (and) there's an opportunity for a lot of crazy things to happen, so you'd like for those things mostly to go in your favor."

Harbaugh knew what he needed for the Giants to gain that edge. He had the front office bring in All-Pro punter/holder Jordan Stout (Ravens) and is giving a long look to undrafted rookie long snapper Ben Mann (Boston College), undrafted kicker Dominic Zvada (Michigan), and holdover kicker Ben Sauls.

The Giants have not operated with an incoming kicker and punter in the same campaign since kicker Matt Bryant and punter/holder Matt Allen handled their respective roles in 2002. Stout and Zvada are in position to shake up this trend.

Harbaugh also has been trying a wide variety of players on kickoff/punt returns and as gunners throughout the offseason and into the preseason.

For more on how Harbaugh has rebuilt the unit, two-time Super Bowl champion and two-time Pro Bowl long snapper Zak DeOssie offers his thoughts on how Harbaugh has rebuilt the Giants' special teams and the challenges they face on the latest edition of the Big Blue Breakdown podcast with host Paul Dottino.

Listeners can also place a video or audio call to Paul during the show by clicking on this link to enter our studio.

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