The New York Giants got their guy.

John Harbaugh will be the next head coach to lead the franchise after an extensive push by ownership and the front office to land the 63-year-old Super Bowl champion.

With the biggest hurdle cleared, now comes the race to fill out his staff.

Harbaugh’s top priority now that he’s in charge in New York will be finding his three coordinators. For Harbaugh, who has a special teams background and is a “CEO-type” head coach who doesn’t call plays, constructing a quality staff will be critical to his success.

Fortunately, and as the Giants obviously understood in their pursuit of him, there are few coaches better equipped to outfit a top-notch coaching staff than Harbaugh. After spending nearly two decades in the NFL as a highly successful head coach, Harbaugh’s network of connections around the NFL is as extensive as anyone’s. He’s got an impressive coaching tree, with branches that span the league, and his track record of success should make him a desirable boss for whom to work.

There’s already movement on the offensive coordinator front. While the makeup of Harbaugh’s staff is still to be confirmed, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that Todd Monken, Harbaugh’s OC with the Ravens for the past three years, is expected to join him in New York. The Giants, of course, will do their due diligence on other candidates, Russini reported, so if the Monken partnership doesn’t pan out for some reason, Harbaugh will still have other options to lead his offense. One notable candidate to consider could be Ravens’ quarterbacks coach Tee Martin.

Still, with the OC role already having a clear frontrunner, we’re turning our attention to the defensive coordinator job. Remember, Harbaugh has a fuller Rolodex than most, so he could pull from a lot of places, but there are some connections that make a lot of sense for him and the Giants. Here are the seven we came up with, listed in alphabetical order:

Joe Cullen

The current Chiefs defensive line coach, Cullen would bring the experience that comes with two Super Bowl victories, in part powered by defensive tackle Chris Jones and defensive end George Karlaftis. Cullen, 58, is a longtime coach who overlapped with Harbaugh in Baltimore as the Ravens’ defensive line coach (2016-2020). Cullen left Baltimore in 2021 to serve as the DC in Jacksonville under head coach Urban Meyer, who was fired before the end of his first season.

Cullen has also served as the defensive line coach for the Buccaneers, Browns, Jaguars and Lions. Cullen’s experience could be appealing to pair with All-Pro DT Dexter Lawrence and an outside linebackers room featuring Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux that felt like it was just starting to hit its stride near the end of the season.

Jim Leonhard

Leonhard’s candidacy quickly picked up steam on social media on Thursday as a potential candidate. The Broncos’ defensive pass game coordinator/assistant head coach has just two years of NFL coaching experience, but has helped transform the Broncos defense into one of the best in the league.

Denver’s defense allowed the second-fewest yards per game (278.2) and the third-fewest points per game (18.3) in the league this season, as it helped lead the Broncos to the AFC’s No. 1 seed. Before his stint with the Broncos, Leonhard coached at Illinois (2023), as well as at his alma mater, Wisconsin (2016-2022). But a big reason why the pairing here makes so much sense is that Leonard, now 43, played safety for Harbaugh during the coach’s first year with the Ravens (2008). Leonhard enjoyed a decade-long NFL career before getting into coaching.

Leonhard’s background with defensive backs should also be appealing to the Giants, who have struggled to get consistent production out of their secondaries in recent years, despite major investments in the units.

Wink Martindale

Here’s a coach who needs no introduction to Giants fans, as he served as the team’s defensive coordinator for ex-head coach Brian Daboll’s first two seasons before an acrimonious divorce saw Martindale replaced by Shane Bowen. Martindale has spent the past couple of seasons in the college ranks coaching Michigan’s defense. Before landing with the Giants in 2022, however, Martindale spent nearly a decade with Harbaugh on Baltimore’s staff as linebackers coach (2012-17) and DC (2018-21). The chances Martindale, 62, returns to the Giants organization as defensive coordinator seem slim, but the issues that led to his exit did stem from his relationship with Daboll. Now, there’s a new head coach and an old friend in charge. Would that lead to a reunion?

Zach Orr

After Martindale left Baltimore, Mike Macdonald left Michigan to take over as Baltimore’s DC. Then, when Macdonald became the Seahawks’ head coach, Orr was promoted from inside linebackers coach to defensive coordinator, a position he’s held for the past two seasons. Orr’s probably the most obvious choice for the Giants’ DC job, given he’s the most recent DC to serve under Harbaugh. However’s Baltimore’s shaky defense (18th in points allowed) in 2025 could put that connection into question. Orr, 33, has spent a ton of time with Harbaugh over the past decade. He was the inside linebackers coach from 2022-23, and before a one-year stop in Jacksonville as the team’s outside linebackers coach (with Cullen in 2021), Orr was a defensive analyst on Harbaugh’s staff from 2017-20. Before that, he played under Harbaugh as a linebacker in 46 games, signing with the Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2014.

Chuck Pagano

Pagano hasn’t been a defensive coordinator since 2020 (Bears), so would Harbaugh want him to return to the role in New York? It seems unlikely, but given the 65-year-old’s history with Harbaugh — he spent four years in Baltimore under Harbaugh, including one as DC (2011) before leaving to be head coach of the Colts — and his current role as a Ravens senior defensive assistant/secondary coach, his name needs to be on the list. Before returning to Baltimore this year, Pagano had taken a long break from coaching. He hadn’t coached anywhere since that final year in Chicago, but now that he’s back in the game, his name is one worth mentioning.

Anthony Weaver

Weaver, 45, has earned head-coach interviews the past three cycles, so whether he’ll remain a coordinator is an open question, as he’s quickly risen through the ranks. But Weaver has an established relationship with Harbaugh, spending three seasons in Baltimore, including two as assistant head coach/defensive line coach before moving on to Miami in 2024 as the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator. Miami’s defense performed quite well in 2024, finishing 10th in points allowed per game (21.4) before falling off this season (24th at 24.9 points per game).

Weaver worked as the Texans’ defensive line coach for four seasons and their DL coach/defensive coordinator in 2020, in addition to coaching stops with the Bills, Browns and Jets. Weaver played seven NFL seasons after being selected by the Ravens as a second-round defensive end in 2002.

Dennard Wilson

Wilson, 43, should be another name familiar to Giants fans, as he was on the list to replace Martindale. At the time, the Ravens’ defensive backs coach opted to go to Tennessee and take the Titans’ DC job, while the Giants ended up with the Titans’ ex-DC in Shane Bowen. Funny how that worked out. Anyway, Wilson’s defenses struggled in his two years there, as they ranked 31st in points allowed (27.6) during that span.

Wilson has interviewed for other vacant defensive coordinator jobs, but with Harbaugh now leading the Giants, it’s fair to expect he’ll check in with his former colleague.