Giants Co-Owner Chris Mara: "Hope Has Turned Into Expectations" Under John Harbaugh

New York Giants team ownership is just as sick and tired as the fan base of losing football year after year, which, of course, is a big reason why the team’s brass went all out to land John Harbaugh as the new head coach.

And with Harbaugh more than halfway through his first offseason and training camp in charge of football operations, the Super Bowl-winning head coach has inspired a positive feeling inside 1925 Giants Drive that transcends hope for a better season outcome.

“The way I look at it, we've used the word hope in the last 10 or 12 years,” team co-owner and senior personnel executive Chris Mara told Gary Myers and Dave Rothenberg on Friday morning during a phone-in review for ESPN-NY radio.

“The hope now has turned into expectations. At least for me it has. I don't hope we win this year. I expect it. I think everybody else does, too. When it comes to November and December, I expect to be playing games that mean something late in the season.”

Ever since two-time Super Bowl head coach Tom Coughlin resigned his position following the 2015 season, the Giants have been cast into a downward spiral that’s been mostly punctuated by years of lousy football that some say rival the Wilderness Years that began in the mid-1960s and ran through the late 1970s.

In the post-Coughlin years, the Giants have racked up a 55-109-1 record with only two postseason berths in that span, the first in 2016 and the most recent in 2022. The Giants also have not won the NFC East division title in that span, having last done so in 2011, the last year they went to (and won) the Super Bowl.

When Harbaugh became available for hire after 18 seasons and 12 postseason berths with the Baltimore Ravens, Mara, who was personally involved in the recruiting of Harbaugh, as well as the rest of ownership, knew that the 63-year-old was the right man to lead the Giants out of this modern-day stretch of darkness.

While the Giants have yet to play a regular-season game under Harbaugh, who, as part of his agreement to take the Giants head coaching job, was given unprecedented authority that includes a direct reporting line to ownership rather than the general manager, the difference in how the team is run is striking.

Harbaugh, unlike his predecessors who all spoke about building a winner only to come up short in their quest to do so, has run a tight ship dating back to the spring. He’s taken full advantage of every allotted minute of practice time as provided for by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the goal being to ensure the team is fully ready for a challenging two-game stretch to open the 2026 campaign.

He’s also assembled one of the strongest-looking assistant coaching staffs in recent years, with every single main position-group coach and coordinator having prior NFL experience.

And Harbaugh has also erased the “class” system that at times existed in the locker room, meaning that everyone is held accountable to the same standards, regardless of draft status or contract.

Aug 20, 2026; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh speaks to reporters after joint practice with the Miami Dolphins at Baptist Health Training Complex. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

He has also been proactive in addressing bumps in the road, such as when the team had, over a three-week period in the spring, lost three players to Achilles injuries.

Under Harbaugh’s directive, the team’s medical and training staff brought in new testing equipment to catch any potential future injuries and keep players healthy.

In all, it adds up to a program that, for years, has worked for Harbaugh in Baltimore and that has convinced Giants ownership it will work here in New York, ending a dismal decade-plus-long stretch of, at times, unwatchable football.

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