Joe Schoen took the field in a white, long-sleeve shirt with a small Giants logo on it and tossed passes during Friday’s rookie minicamp practice. A day later, he reported he felt soreness in the shoulder and core muscle areas and then shook his head when he was reminded that, at 42, he is two years younger than a certain quarterback for the Buccaneers.
Schoen smiled and spent a minute reminiscing about his brief career as a college quarterback back home in Indiana at DePauw University before switching — being told to switch, more precisely — to wide receiver. Then he sounded excited to catch a flight to Buffalo to celebrate his 4-year old daughter’s birthday, a needed respite after the protracted grind of the NFL draft process.
This is a new age of Giants football, and Schoen, along with his handpicked head coach, Brian Daboll, are the driving forces to what will be a rejuvenation. Does that mean this rebuilding team will finish with a winning record in 2022? No, it does not. It is already clear, though, that the days of this franchise as a doormat are nearing an end.
The final cycle of Tom Coughlin’s 12-year run — 7-9, 6-10, 6-10 — put on display an operation in decline. After a one-year bump thanks to an infusion of mercenary imports on defense, the embarrassments of 3-13, 5-11, 4-12, 6-10 and 4-13 under three head coaches will eventually be remembered with chagrin as the dark days. There are lighter times ahead. How bright it shines remains to be seen, but it is already evident the linkage of Schoen and Daboll is going to reap rewards for the Giants.
That Buffalo Bills connection has an advantage that so many previous Giants general manager-head coach alliances did not. Schoen and Daboll are friends. Seeing the two of them, and their wives, sitting together at a round table during a party at the owners’ meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., interacting so naturally was merely one snippet of their bond. They attended two Rangers playoff games together. They spent the past four years in Buffalo filling similar in-waiting positions, Schoen as the assistant to Brandon Beane and Daboll as the offensive coordinator for Sean McDermott. Their shared success with the Bills earned the promotions the Giants were eager to bestow upon them.
“I think alignment is very important,” Daboll said not long after he was hired. “The last few years at the Buffalo Bills I got to see that firsthand. If you put people in a leadership position and make sure that they’re aligned and have a proper plan and then surround them with good people, you have a chance.’’
This is what will make the difference. The alignment here is snug and secure, unlikely to loosen if losses mount in the early stages of all this. The Dave Gettleman-Joe Judge alignment the past two years devolved from adequate to indiscernible.
There is no feeling-out process with Schoen and Daboll as they both settle into their coveted promotions. There is no need for one to investigate how the other values certain traits in players; they already know. There is no feeling-out period, in terms of personality quirks or personal situations; they already know. Schoen’s agenda is Daboll’s agenda. They are sympatico in that they arrived together and theirs is a shared timeline. Daboll, 47, will endure growing pains as a first-timer, as will Schoen, but there will be no conjecture about one distrusting the other.
The first NFL draft with Schoen calling the shots and Daboll shaping his own roster was seamless and collaborative. Schoen said “the coaching staff did a tremendous job.’’ Daboll recalled “Joe and myself and about eight other people’’ watched three particular prospects “for what seemed like 12 hours a day.’’
They could grind it out and then laugh about it afterwards.
“Three times, Joe flipped a coin and decided who he was going to pick,’’ Daboll said. “We were calling heads and tails over there.’’
This is not said, even in jest, in a new relationship.
Schoen was the lead player in this, as the draft is mostly a general manager orchestration, and Daboll easily ceded the media spotlight. Starting with the now-completed rookie minicamp, the attention shifts to the on-the-field action, and Daboll takes center stage, with Schoen agreeably moving in public to the background.
Schoen is putting the finishing touches on a new-look front office and scouting department and the result will be an upgraded and more coherent operation that should be a boon to the franchise.
There are high hurdles ahead, and Schoen and Daboll are living under the blanket of an undefeated existence. That there will be losses ahead does not shade the reality that the Giants are back in the game now.