Joe Schoen and John Harbaugh’s Giants vision will begin to take shape at NFL combine

INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL scouting combine is traditionally a time for the head coach and his staff, coming off a long season, to switch gears and dig in on the draft prospects. Coaches are always playing catch-up with this, as the general manager, personnel executives and scouts are far ahead with the player evaluations, based on months of evaluating, on-site visits, personal contact and film study.

This year is no exception, as far as the Giants are concerned, with a twist. This time around, John Harbaugh is the head coach of a franchise that pursued him with great zeal and hired him for the largest contract — five years, $100 million — it ever handed out to a head coach, by far.

To this point, Harbaugh has been busy assembling his first Giants coaching staff. This will be the first time, after 18 years with the Ravens, he puts on Giants-issued gear and represents his new team when he interviews players this week and also speaks with all sorts of NFL executives during a weeklong football fair, of sorts.

General manager Joe Schoen and Harbaugh will meet with the media on Tuesday. By all accounts, their relationship is off to a strong start, as the two have worked closely on a series of hires covering a wide range of football operations. 

Giants ownership is not happy with the characterization outside the building that Schoen’s responsibilities are diminished or that he has been relegated to scouting and nothing else. He has operated this offseason in the same manner he has in his previous four with the Giants, other than initially being immersed in the comprehensive head coach search that identified Harbaugh as the No. 1 target as soon as he became available. 

Schoen aided Harbaugh in the assembling of a coaching staff and with the additions to the training department as well as the hiring of Dawn Aponte as senior vice president of football operations and strategy. Schoen worked previously with Aponte with the Dolphins. Her job description is the exact same as the position Kevin Abrams held for more than two decades. That Aponte reports directly to Harbaugh, and not Schoen, is curious and is sure to be a topic of conversation. 

Schoen oversaw the comprehensive NFL draft meetings with his personnel department and the scouts. He will conduct interviews with players this week at the combine, as usual. There is no chance he will be dismissed after the draft. He is expected to receive a contract extension.

The Giants have seven picks in this draft, starting with No. 5 overall in the first round and one pick in the second, fourth and fifth rounds. They have three picks in the sixth round and none in the seventh round. They sent their third-round pick to the Texans in the trade-up into the first round last year to get quarterback Jaxson Dart.

They could use their top pick to find another weapon (Carnell Tate, Jordyn Tyson, Makai Lemon) or another protector (Spencer Fano, Francis Mauigoa) for Dart. There are also several intriguing options on defense, including Ohio State linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles and Ohio State safety Caleb Downs.

For the first time, all of the Giants’ player assessments, under Schoen’s direction, will have some Harbaugh-tinged repercussions. 

“I should have a vision for the team we want to build and I should be able to match that with what I see on tape and just to share that with everybody involved,” Harbaugh said. “We come to a collective decision. I know everybody wants to make it a little bit about who’s making what decision, but at the end, the point is, we should all agree to agree. And have a unified idea of the player we’re drafting or the player we’re signing.”

Harbaugh and his staff have already clued Schoen and the scouts in on what traits and physical attributes they are looking for in the players in this draft. Next, it is up to Schoen and his scouting department to try to match those preferences with the strengths and weaknesses of the players in this draft. That is a big part of what this week is all about.