“Harbaugh watched Dart on tape and came away excited about his future. He had at least one longtime scout study the Giants’ roster and film to determine whether this 4-13 team could be fixed in short order, and he came away believing it could.” – @Ian_OConnor
This is precisely what Wonder and I have been saying. Harbaugh did his due diligence. He’s no patsy performing charity. He’s not 63 years young. He’s 63 years old. He doesn’t have 3-4 years to burn. He’s not coming in to rebuild. He was not going to a team that had QB question marks. Either you have a franchise QB or you don’t. This is why the fit was so right for both sides.
The Giants roster is closer than you think. The hardest pieces of the roster have been assembled. Trash Schoen all you want. I am not one of his supporters. He’s made too many errors. But he does have QB. Dart. He does have Protect QB. Thomas is locked up; hopefully the intelligence to re-sign Eluemunor. He does have Rush the QB. Brian Burns. Abdul Carter. Kayvon Thibodeaux. Dexter Lawrence.
Mara was beaten up and humiliated by 2 bad GMs and 4 worse HCs. Enter the catalyst that we would not expect- Eli Manning. He reached out to John Mara and gave him the dose of medicine that only someone like him (trusted, pure of intention, infinitely respected) could deliver.
“Manning told Giants owner John Mara two months ago that the team needed a HC with experience who had seen all there is to see in the NFL and could take control of the building. Two months ago, the ideal person didn’t exist. Then Harbaugh fell into their lap.” @GaryMyersNY
Eli delivered the medicine. Mara was ready for the message- the franchise desperately needed the next Head Coach to be “a reset,” someone who had the experience and knew how to run a team successfully. This is why in December you started hearing whispers about names like McCarthy. Not a fan. But at least a ‘has been’ who could run a team.
The Giants got very lucky. Harbaugh was let go. Things came together. Thank Dart. Thank Eli. And thank Mara too. Yes, Mara created these problems. It was up to Mara to get them out of these problems. The BBB podcast guys pointed out that Mara is not only opening up the wallet for Harbaugh… He’s also giving Harbaugh the budget he needs for attracting the best staff. This is another piece this franchise was missing. It’s not an accident that Harbaugh made this ask as part of his package. It goes back to what Eli said- get someone who knows. All 4 of Harbaugh’s predecessors did not make or get that budget. Harbaugh has that. This will be the structural difference in enabling the player development that has been missing from this team. This is what you get from what Eli calls “seen it all” experience. It’s not Head Coach. It’s Head Coach management. Some great coordinators become great Head Coaches. Many more do not. We have seen 3 who did not plus a fourth retread (Shurmur) who wasn’t a good HC with success before coming to the Giants.
It’s morning for the Giants franchise. This long dark 13 year trip is finally ending.
There are still many questions Harbaugh (and Schoen) will have to answer. My biggest is- how is Malik Nabers’ knee rehabilitation going? But they’ll figure these things out. Harbaugh will get talented assistants into the building who can make the assessments necessary in resetting the franchise and going from there. I’m cautiously optimistic that we will get a bump from intermediate talent like JMS and Nubin. And I’m very optimistic that players like Carter and Lawrence can flourish.
Thank you Eli Manning. Let’s go Harbaugh. Let’s go Giants.