Feb. 16, 2026, 6:06 a.m. ET
The New York Giants have brought in John Harbaugh to right their listing ship. It was a no-brainer decision by Big Blue, which needed to finally hire a coach with experience and a winning pedigree after another lost season.
Harbaugh fits the bill perfectly. He is a youthful 63 years old with 18 years of head coaching experience and has a Super Bowl victory to his credit. He holds the NFL record for playoff road wins (eight), and his 193 wins are fourth among active NFL head coaches.
Harbaugh was let go by the Baltimore Ravens after last season, after 18 years with the team. Things had run their course, it seemed. He became the hottest head coaching commodity in recent years, but didn’t last long on the market. The Giants were hellbent on signing him.
Since the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI in February of 2012, they have gone on an odyssey of losing that combined poor planning and lousy execution with bad luck and misfortune. Over the last dozen seasons, they have lost 10 or more games in a year 10 times. It is being called the second “wilderness” period.
The first “wilderness” period was from 1964 to 1980, when the Giants failed to modernize and keep up with the times. They didn’t qualify for the postseason during that period after doing so in six of the previous eight seasons.
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Times have changed. Teams should not be this bad for this long under the current NFL structure. The meek are truly designed to inherit the Earth if they follow the script. Everything is geared for the bad teams to get better, except the Giants haven’t seemed to be able to do that.
Perhaps it has been their insistence on hiring first-time head coaches and hot coordinators to run the team. Since 2016, they have done this four times, and all four times they failed. This time, they’re going for the established guy.
This week, Harbaugh completed his coaching staff, which is also loaded with winners and highly experienced names. He wants nothing more than to win and knows that if he can do that, he’ll be the toast of the town.
“I’ve heard people say the parade in New York is the most incredible thing ever,” Harbaugh told The Athletic. “Coach Coughlin told me that, and I have a vision, like, ‘Wow, I want it. I want to see that. I want to be in that parade.’
“But with that being said, what I’m thinking about is what the team looks like that earns the right to be in that parade someday. What do we have to build to get there? That’s really what I’m consumed with.”
This past week, he went into overdrive and rounded out his staff. He can now concentrate on the roster — what pieces are here and what is needed. He’s confident.
“This feels right. It feels like an amazing new chapter,” Harbaugh said. “I need things to be organized, to look right, to be in their proper place … and I’m starting to see it all coming together.
“You start putting systems of offense, defense, and special teams together, having those conversations with coaches about how we’re going to build our terminology out. Building systems, to me, is so important, and now it’s starting to take shape. That’s what I’m excited about.”
Giant fans should be excited, too.
