Report: Joe Schoen’s Role in Giants Front Office Shrinks as Harbaugh & Co. Take Over

New York’s general manager will seemingly have a different job in 2026.

Schoen's job looks very different nowadays in New York. | Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Things are set to look a bit different for the Giants next season following the hire of John Harbaugh.

After the team made the move for its next head coach official last month, general manager Joe Schoen’s role in New York immediately came under the microscope. The franchise notably tweaked its org chart so that both he and Harbaugh now report directly to ownership, rather than having the head coach report to Schoen—a significant shift in their power structure.

“I’m not worried about it,” Schoen told reporters back in January when asked about the change. “That’s just something on a piece of paper, doesn’t matter. We need to work together and we’re gonna come to the final conclusion, and it’s always going to be about what's best for the New York Giants. So, I have no problem with that and I’m looking forward to working with him.”

The team’s latest front office addition, however, could give Schoen reason to at least think twice about his standing in New York.

Latest Giants front office wrinkle is an interesting one for Joe Schoen

Schoen will remain the Giants' general manager to begin the 2026 season. | Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

The Giants made another big move this week, hiring in longtime NFL executive Dawn Aponte as their senior vice president of football operations and strategy. Aponte most recently served as the league’s chief administrator of football operations, a role she had been in since 2017.

Recent reporting on the matter has shed some light on what Aponte's new gig will look like in New York. According to The Athletic’s Ian O’Connor, not only will she oversee analytics, salary cap management, and player contract negotiations, but she’ll also report straight to Harbaugh, who was “heavily involved” in her hire.

Additionally, in response to O’Connor’s reporting, the New York Daily News’s Pat Leonard added that Schoen, “is basically relegated to handling scouting,” and that the rest of the Giants building—aside from Harbaugh, of course—will report to Aponte.

Not a great sign for Schoen, who at this point seems to be the team’s general manager in name only.

“I had high expectations for Joe [Schoen], and I would say he’s lived up to those high expectations,” Harbaugh said of Schoen, via O'Connor. “We’ve worked really well together. We talk multiple, multiple times every day.”

Schoen was hired by New York in 2022 alongside then-head coach Brian Daboll. He’s over seen the extension (and subsequent release) of quarterback Daniel Jones, the trade of running back Saquon Barkley, as well as the drafting of first-round talents Kayvon Thibodeaux, Malik Nabers, Abdul Carter, and Jaxson Dart.

The Giants are coming off of 4–13 finish to the 2025 season.

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