Harbaugh and Schoen on learning to work with each other, much more.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen spoke to media at different times on Tuesday. What each would say about the other, and about a working relationship that sees Harbaugh as the commander and Schoen as a lieutenant, was the biggest curiosity during the first full day at the NFL Scouting Combine.
‘I’m still the general manager’
It has been clear since the day Harbaugh was hired that the Giants’ organizational structure has changed. Harbaugh reports to ownership rather than to Schoen, an arrangement Harbaugh insisted upon and that the Giants never previously had.
As an equal on paper, Harbaugh has flexed a massive amount of muscle in the early weeks of his tenure, re-creating the Giants in a way that reflects his values and the people he wants to work with.
One of those changes was hiring Dawn Aponte as Senior Vice President of Football Operations and Strategy, and having Aponte report to Harbaugh rather than Schoen.
Harbaugh having greater control over more areas of the organization than any other Giants’ coach, and the reality that Aponte reports to Harbaugh, give the impression that Schoen’s role has been marginalized and that he is no longer the final decision-maker.
Schoen bristled on Tuesday at the notion that certain areas of responsibility, like contracts, were perhaps no longer his.
“I’m still the general manager of the team and my role has not changed,” Schoen said. “I’m still tasked with leading the entire football operation. And we’re going to work in collaboration like most good teams do.
“And it’s going to be collaborative. Everybody’s going to have their role, but there’s constant communication between Dawn, Coach Harbaugh, myself in terms of how we’re going to build the football operation. And then how we’re going to execute the draft, trades, free agency, contract signings, coaching staff, whatever it may be. We’re going to work in collaboration together. We’re aligned in that, and it’s been going really good so far.”
Harbaugh, too, pushed the collaboration narrative.
“It’s funny because I keep saying it and it’s hard to put your arms around it from the outside, but it is truly a collaboration. Really what it is at the end of the day is you work together to build a team,” Harbaugh said. “The term that I came up with with Ozzie [Newsome, former Baltimore Ravens GM] after we worked together for a couple of years was that we figured out how to agree to agree.
“We had a lot of conversations about players and who we liked, who we didn’t like, who we wanted, who I wanted, how they ranked, who we might take or not take. Ozzie was picking the players so sometimes I was making the case but other times he was making the case to me because he didn’t want to take somebody that the coach didn’t want and I didn’t want. We could never settle on we agree or disagree. We had to agree to agree on who we were taking. The point is that’s the same thing here. That’s what we’ll be doing here.”
Schoen said he and Harbaugh are trying to marry the way things were done in Baltimore with the way they have been during his time with the Giants.
“Coach and I’s communication has been great. Again, when you got here, it’s the first time you’re going through everything together,” Schoen said. “So, yeah, how did you guys do this in Baltimore? Okay, this is how we did it. Okay, we’re doing that exactly the same.
“We don’t have all the answers. There’s tweaks that we can make in our process that will make us better, and I’m open to that. So, we’ve got a lot of communication up to this point. He’s really liked the process that we currently have. We’ve tweaked a couple things, but the communication has been great. Ultimately, we’re just trying to do what’s best for the Giants, whatever part of the process it is.”
Why did the Giants hire Dawn Aponte to replace Kevin Abrams?
“To be the very best we can be,” Harbaugh said. “It was an opportunity. I’ve known Dawn for many years through the league circles and have worked with her on different projects and things like that. Nothing but the utmost respect for her.
“When it became apparent that she was interested in this particular job it was obvious that she was the perfect fit for what we were trying to do.
“She makes us better. She gives us a chance to be our very best.”
The part of hiring Aponte that has raised eyebrows is that she reports to Harbaugh and not Schoen. So, even though she is below Schoen on an organization chart, her power is apparent.
Why was Aponte reporting to him important to Harbaugh?
“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s important in any other way than just trying to figure out how we want to operate and be our best,” Harbaugh said. “It’s like building your team. You got players, you try to build your schemes around who you have. Make it work the best way it’s going to work. So we want our plays to fit our guys.
“I think we want our operation format to fit the people that we have. So Joe and I were figuring everything out. Not just Joe and I, but also John, Chris [Mara], everybody involved. But mainly us. How do we want to operate? Who do we want to put in charge of what? Who do we want to talk to who? What’s the best way to make it work? I’m sure it will always be evolving for what’s best at any given time. We organized it the way we organized it because we felt like this is the best way to be effective.”
Schoen worked with Aponte with the Miami Dolphins.
