Why Giants Should Stay the Course (for Now) with Joe Schoen's Plan

The results haven't been there for the Giants, but there is merit in what he's trying to build.

Jul 24, 2024; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen talks to media before the start of training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Facility. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The New York Giants’ 2-8 record isn’t anywhere close to what anyone in the organization expected it to be. 

And to no one’s surprise, the calls to fire everybody from the paying customers have only intensified with each mounting loss in which the Giants look as though they’re playing football for the first time this year instead of being past the midway point of the season.

While the fan frustration is understandable, the last thing that team ownership should be thinking about is strapping the current regime and starting from scratch, not unless they want to remain stuck in this vicious decae-plus cycle that, other for a break here and there, has stripped the once proud franchise of its dignity and respect around the league.

Staying the course is hard, especially when the results haven't been there, but that appears to be the plan from team ownership when it comes to general manager Joe Schoen, who when asked about his immediate future indicated that he would be allowed to continue trying to rebuild a franchise that’s been in shatters. 

Schoen’s decisions in building up a franchise that was in far worse shape when he first came on the job haven’t always been on the money. 

One can point to his methods of valuing players as one of his biggest flaws–not paying for guys like running back Saquon Barkley because he was past a certain age, or letting safety Xavier McKinney, who is in the running for Defensive Player of the Year, walk away in free agency, or holding steady on his price for edge rusher Azeez Ojulari and receiver Darius Slayton, both of whom are likely to move on in free agency.

One can even question the quality of his three draft classes in which there are a handful of good players, but really no bonafide “stars” in the mold of Andrew Thomas or Dexter Lawrence, both of whom were drafted by Schoen’s predecessor, Dave Gettleman. 

And yes, he can be faulted for Daniel Jones’s contract hanging over the franchise like a dark cloud when in retrospect, he might have been better off exercising the option year in Jones’s rookie deal and then going on from there.

But what Schoen has sold ownership on is that the team he inherited lacked a solid core foundation of youth and a steady presence on the coaching staff to develop that youth–a process that doesn’t complete overnight.

“I do like where we are from a continuity standpoint. And I think that's important,” he said. “Year over year, having a core nucleus of players that can lead and teach and help implement the coach's message, the scheme, whatever it may be. Constant turnover and new players every year? That's tough. 

The goal all along was to build something that's sustainable. And to do that, it takes time. And based on resources that you have, again, it's painful going through it, but I think where we are right now and where we're heading.” 

As badly as team co-owner John Mara wants to win, rebuilding a franchise that was practically in ashes before Schoen was hired wasn’t something that was going to be fixed overnight, despite what we’re witnessing down in Washington, who benefitted from the idea combination and timing of having new ownership, a new general manager, a new coaching staff and a new quarterback.

But to contemplate starting all over from scratch by tossing out Schoen and Daboll before they have an opportunity to pick and develop their quarterback and add him to the promising young core of players already in place, such as safety Tyler Nubin, running back Tyrone Tracy Jr., cornerback Dru Phillips, tight end Theo Johnson, outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux, center John Michael Schmitz, and receivers Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson before letting that foundation really solidify with t veterans like linebackers Brian Burns and Bobby Okereke, offensive linemen Jermaine Eluemunor, Andrew Thomas, and Jon Runyan, Jr, and defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence II is only going to serve to keep the Giants right where they are: in a vicious, groundhog-day like cycle of disappointing football. 

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