At least Joe Schoen, general manager of a New York Giants team that has gone 5-25 since the beginning of the 2024 season, did not say on Tuesday that the team was \u201cnot far off\u201d from being a good team.<\/p>\n
That is what the GM said last year when he held his bye week press conference with the Giants sporting a 2-8 record and getting ready to part ways with then-quarterback Daniel Jones.<\/p>\n
Asked how close the Giants, 2-11 for a second straight year, are to actually competing Schoen at least showed some semblance of recognizing reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re [at] two wins,\u201d Schoen said on Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019re not there. We\u2019ve got to do better. That is what it is. We\u2019re two wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are more of the takeaways from Schoen on Tuesday during his annual bye week press conference.<\/p>\n
Joe Schoen understands our questions<\/p>\n
Schoen said \u201cI understand the question\u201d six times during a roughly 22-minute press conference. That is usually coach-speak or GM-speak for \u201cI know what you want me to say, but I am not going to.\u201d Each time, and several other times when he said he understood something or other, Schoen deflected to a non-answer kind of answer.<\/p>\n
Just one word of advice for Schoen. If you think the New York media was out for blood, don\u2019t read the comments section of the livestream from the Giants YouTube channel. Those folks were more aggressive than Patriots defenders trying to separate Gunner Olszewski\u2019s head from his body on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Why should Joe Schoen still have a job?<\/p>\n
Head coach Brian Daboll, the coach Schoen picked in 2022, has been fired. The defensive coordinator Daboll picked after a falling out with Wink Martindale, Shane Bowen, has been fired.<\/p>\n
Going back to 2023, the Giants are 11-36 (.234 winning percentage) since making the playoffs in 2022. Why does the GM who picked the players that \u201caccomplished\u201d that feat still be employed by the Giants, AND get to lead the search for another head coach?<\/p>\n
This was, of course, one of the questions Schoen said he understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy focus right now is on supporting [Mike] Kafka as we go forward, and we\u2019ll evaluate all aspects of the football operation as we go forward,\u201d Schoen said.<\/p>\n
And has it been perfect? No.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m very confident in my staff, myself, and our ability to get this franchise back where it needs to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why does he have such confidence when the year over year results appear to be getting worse rather than better?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts with me. I take responsibility for that,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cBut we do have a good young quarterback that\u2019s on a rookie contract for the next four years, and that\u2019s when it gets fun. When you\u2019re building around a young quarterback, you have a good nucleus, you have a good left tackle, you have a wide receiver that had a historic rookie season. You\u2019ve got a good running back room, you\u2019ve got pass rushers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s pieces in place. And I do have confidence in our ability and our process to find the next coach to lead the organization. And again, I truly believe in that process, and I know we\u2019re going to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just for reference, this is what Schoen said last season about the Giants\u2019 process:<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in our process. I believe in the research that we do, the work we\u2019re doing \u2026 I believe where we\u2019re going. Again, building it, sometimes it hurts and it\u2019s painful and it\u2019s hard to go through it. But, we\u2019re going in the right direction \u2026 a lot of confidence in my staff and our process and where we\u2019re heading.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Schoen knows mistakes have been made<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s five wins the last two years. It\u2019s not good enough,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to make excuses. It\u2019s not good enough. I don\u2019t want to go through individually different scenarios. There\u2019s context to a lot of things, but it\u2019s five wins. It\u2019s not good enough, and we\u2019ve got to get better.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to look at the entire football operation, everything from free agency decisions, draft decisions, coaching, execution. What can we do better? Because there are pieces here. Why aren\u2019t we maximizing what we have? That\u2019s going to be our mission this offseason to figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The GM did not want to go decision-by-decision, but acknowledged his culpability.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody\u2019s perfect, and the chance of me batting 1.000 are gone because I\u2019ve made mistakes,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s going to make mistakes, and we\u2019re going to get some things right.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as you\u2019re learning from those mistakes and you reflect on the process in place and where you went wrong and you can continue to get better, that\u2019s what\u2019s most important. I\u2019m better today than I was four years ago when I got this job, and a year from now, God willing, I\u2019m standing here, I\u2019m going to be better than I am today.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s all I can do. That\u2019s all my staff can do. We continue to evaluate the process where there are some things we did where we missed in our process or we strayed from what we believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoen said \u201cthere\u2019s a chance\u201d the Giants strayed from what they believed in along the way, especially earlier in his tenure.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave I screwed up? Have I made mistakes? Absolutely. I\u2019ve got to live with that. I\u2019ve got to learn from it, educate my staff on what we can do better,\u201c Schoen said. \u201cLesson learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFlagship franchise. Great ownership. Young quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoen is not worried about being able to find great candidates for head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe there is a good young core to build around here, and it will be an attractive job for many coaches,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to focus on, our process, to get this organization back where it belongs. Again, it\u2019s the gold standard. It\u2019s still the New York Giants and the greatest city in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoen scoffed at the idea that top coaching candidates would not want the job if he were the GM.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe calls we\u2019ve gotten, I think we\u2019re going to be able to fill the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoen said that Kafka is getting \u201ca real look\u201d at earning the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cOwnership made a decision\u201d on Brian Daboll<\/p>\n
Schoen said that \u201cownership made a decision\u201d to fire Daboll a few weeks ago, and admitted that \u201cmy hand\u2019s in it just like Brian\u2019s is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish Dabs nothing but the best,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to do everything we can to get this franchise back to where it should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cDabs and I have an extended history together, professionally and personally. Difficult decision, but one we decided to make. And he\u2019s a great football coach, and he\u2019s going to be successful in whatever he does after the New York Giants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some TLC for Abdul Carter<\/p>\n
Carter, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, has now been benched twice by Kafka in three weeks for rules violations. Schoen is not losing faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbdul\u2019s a young man that\u2019s 21 years old that\u2019s smart and understands the magnitude of his actions and also understands what it means to be a pro,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cThese kids are 21 years old, and they\u2019re thrust into the spotlight in New York City. It\u2019s not always going to be perfect. People make mistakes. Nobody\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd part of our job is to develop them as football players, but also as people. And we will continue to do that with everybody in this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaxson Dart and the \u201cfine line\u201d of protecting himself<\/p>\n
Schoen said Dart, whom the Giants traded up to select in the first round of the draft, has \u201cplayed really well for a rookie\u201d and has \u201cexceeded expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The GM said he has been involved in conversations with Dart to get him to understand when and when not to take risks with his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving just lived it in Buffalo [with Josh Allen] we\u2019ve been through this before. What makes these players great is their toughness, their competitiveness, their desire to win,\u201d Schoen said. You appreciate that about Jackson, but you also have to be available. Try not to take the unnecessary hits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say last night was probably unnecessary, probably could have gotten out of bounds. It\u2019s third-and-1, and instead we get a penalty, and he takes a shot, and now it\u2019s third-and-16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a fine line, and what makes Jaxson great is his competitiveness, his desire to win, and that\u2019s the way he\u2019s wired. So you try to find a fine line between playing smart but also not taking away what makes him great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least Joe Schoen, general manager of a New York Giants team that has gone 5-25 since the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[81822,349,99,81823],"class_list":{"0":"post-327719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-new-york-giants-analysis","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-valentines-views"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}