{"id":345571,"date":"2026-09-13T13:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T13:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345571\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T13:13:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T13:13:01","slug":"after-18-years-in-baltimore-john-harbaugh-faces-his-biggest-challenge-yet-turning-around-the-new-york-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345571\/","title":{"rendered":"After 18 years in Baltimore, John Harbaugh faces his biggest challenge yet: Turning around the New York Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The start of the new NFL season<\/a> always brings a few things that take getting used to. Perhaps one of the most head-turning sights will be walking the sidelines of MetLife Stadium during the final game on Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n John Harbaugh<\/a> will be making his regular-season debut with the New York Giants<\/a> that night in New Jersey in a divisional matchup vs. the Dallas Cowboys that could set the tone for both teams\u2019 seasons. It\u2019s bound to be a disarming sight: For the first time in 18 years, Harbaugh won\u2019t be in the black-and-purple of the Baltimore Ravens.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019ll be a new home stadium, new colors, a bunch of new players and new assistants around Harbaugh after nearly two decades in Charm City. But some things will be the same.\n <\/p>\n

\n From what his players have said ahead of the season, expect the Giants to be physical and \u2013 even after a last-place 4-13 record last year and a string of disappointing campaigns \u2013 winning remains the standard.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHow do you go out there and compete at this level if you don\u2019t expect to win? If you don\u2019t expect to win, you certainly aren\u2019t going to,\u201d Harbaugh said earlier this month.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve said this before: we expect and we plan to and we\u2019ll be playing to win every single one of our games this year. That\u2019s our expectation, that\u2019s our plan, that\u2019s what we\u2019ll be striving for. We think we can, we believe we can wholeheartedly.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That will be music to the ears of Giants fans who have had to endure a depressing decade, with just one winning season since 2016. A string of six coaches in that time span, including interims, has turned the Meadowlands into a football no-man\u2019s land following a period of success that included two Super Bowl championships and frequent trips to the playoffs.\n <\/p>\n

\"Fans<\/p>\n

\n Consistency and winning are Harbaugh\u2019s bread and butter. His run in Baltimore included 12 trips to the playoffs, one Super Bowl championship and a 180-113 record in 18 seasons. He had fewer losing seasons in those 18 years (three) than the Giants have had this decade (five).\n <\/p>\n

\n Those Ravens teams were shaped in the tried-and-true image of the Harbaugh family: Tough defense, strong running games and superstar quarterbacks under center. It\u2019s a recipe that Giants fans are familiar with and one they might be able to run back this season under new leadership.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe principles of the vision you\u2019re talking about, that\u2019s that word, are written in stone, and they\u2019re football principles,\u201d Harbaugh said at his opening press conference earlier this year. \u201cThey\u2019re self-evident truths. They aren\u2019t ever going to change. Those are things you carry with you through 18 years or 42 years or whatever it is. You carry those principles with you. You learn what they are, and they\u2019re just non-compromised. They can\u2019t be. They have to happen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n One of those ingredients appears to already be present in northern New Jersey in second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart.\n <\/p>\n

\n Drafted out of Ole Miss to be the future star under center for the Giants, Dart looked promising in his rookie year even after missing two games with a concussion. The expectations for him were high even before Harbaugh became his new head coach after a relatively quick search following Harbaugh and the Ravens\u2019 split in January<\/a> \u2013 a search that even included the President of the United States pressing the Giants to hire Harbaugh.\n <\/p>\n

\n So far, Dart\u2019s connection with Harbaugh seems strong, with the quarterback describing his leader as intense and in love with the game of football.\n <\/p>\n

\n Oh, and Dart loves that Harbaugh has something to prove after the Ravens let him go.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a chip on his shoulder. I\u2019m interested to see how his demeanor continues to grow as we go forward,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n So far, that chip has manifested in ramping up the intensity for the Giants.\n <\/p>\n

\n In training camp, that meant frequent practices in pads and a style seen more often in the college game than in the pros. Isaiah Likely, a tight end who followed Harbaugh to the Giants from Baltimore, said it all felt normal to him, though it was clearly different for some of his teammates.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI feel like that\u2019s normal to me. Like, I\u2019m just \u2013 if I wake up, I\u2019m putting on cleats. That\u2019s just the mantra I have,\u201d he told reporters last week. \u201cSo, hearing how Giants training camp was in the past, that was kind of mind-boggling to me, but I feel like the guys embraced it. We had a good time in Greenbrier (the West Virginia resort where training camp opened) and then when we got here, I feel like now everybody\u2019s on the same mantra: If we\u2019re in the building, it\u2019s all ball.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Head<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI see why his teams are always physical,\u201d added cornerback Greg Newsome II. \u201cHis teams are always smart. They\u2019re not penalized much, and everyone\u2019s pretty disciplined. I think that\u2019s a credit to what he does as a coach and just being a part of it this little time I\u2019ve been here so far, I can tell why in late December and January, they\u2019re playing meaningful games every single year.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Harbaugh\u2019s influence on the organization has already stretched beyond the field and into the front office.\n <\/p>\n

\n Giants general manager Joe Schoen, who is entering his fifth season as general manager of the Giants and was feeling the heat last season as his team floundered, has been seeking his head coach\u2019s counsel on personnel matters frequently in the offseason.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s immersed in the personnel, and he\u2019s helpful, makes us think outside the box, challenges us. And that\u2019s what has ultimately led to a lot of good conversations, communications, ultimately making the best decision for the New York Giants,\u201d Schoen said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The start of the new NFL season always brings a few things that take getting used to. Perhaps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-345571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}