Giants general manager Joe Schoen did not dodge taking responsibility for the team’s 3-14 performance during the 2024 NFL season and said that while there is much to be done to build the roster he won’t mortgage the future in the hopes of keeping his job.
“First and foremost, myself,” Schoen said when asked who the blame falls on for the team’s play. “We’re not good enough, we didn’t play well enough. I gotta do a better job assembling the roster with more talent so we can go out and compete at a high level. I look inward.”
Despite the second straight losing season, Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll will be back for the 2025 NFL campaign with ownership saying they “remain confident in the process” heading into the fourth year of the partnership.
But that assurance came with a warning from John Mara that the turnaround “better not take too long, because I’ve just about run out of patience.”
The GM said that he has a “tremendous amount of respect” for the ownership group and wouldn’t let the desire to save his job outweigh his responsibility to the franchise’s long-term sustainability.
“I would never do that, we’re gonna build this thing the right way and I’m not gonna do a Hail Mary for self-preservation,” Schoen said. “We have a plan in place that we believe in and we’re gonna stick with that.”
Schoen highlighted that he has good communication with the Mara and Tisch families and they “understand where we are and where we’re trying to go and there will be no Hail Marys.”
Is the GM concerned that he won’t get enough time with the Giants to fully realize that plan? “No, no,” Schoen said.
He added that ownership hasn’t given him any ultimatums about making the playoffs next year, but a desire to see the franchise is taking steps in the right direction.
“It’s about progress,” Schoen said. “We’re at three wins. We didn’t make progress in the direction we wanted to this year and it’s not good enough. It starts with me and I understand that.”
Now, the task ahead is no small one but he believes the organization is “in good shape” to improve the roster through free agency, trade and the draft as they have ample draft capital and room under the salary cap.
“Obviously the three wins, not good enough,” Schoen said. “But that’s what we’ll spend the next four months doing between the draft and free agency upgrading the roster the best we can, looking at the organization top to bottom trying to figure out what’s best moving forward throughout the entire football operation.”
While the holes on the roster are plentiful, the direction of the franchise and the security of Schoen’s and Daboll’s jobs rely upon finally finding an answer at quarterback.
“It’s the most important position in football,” the GM said before noting that only Tommy DeVito – a feel-good story and local product but not a long-term answer – is the only QB still on the roster as Drew Lock, who started the season finale, is set to be a free agent and Daniel Jones, the man they signed to an extension after his first year on the job, was released seven weeks ago.
Does that leave Schoen with any regrets about not drafting a quarterback last year?
“No, I’m happy with Malik [Nabers] and where he was and the draft class in general,” he said mentioning the wide receiver they took at No. 6 overall before defending the six total picks he made. “I’m happy with the core foundation that we were able to acquire through last year’s draft and I think those guys will be key pieces moving forward.”
When asked about his confidence level in getting the QB evaluation right this time around, Schoen said he “wouldn’t change what we did” in the past with Jones and the four-year contract signed in the 2022 offseason.
“When I reflect on how that went down with Daniel, it’s the information you have [at that time] we had just won 10 games, you won a road playoff game, I had just watched Dabs for four years at Buffalo with Josh Allen, the year before that with [Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa] at Alabama,” Schoen said. “So I got a lot of confidence in the coaching staff, I’ve got a lot of confidence in our process, we’ve done these quarterback deep dives the last two or three years and I would say the players that we were high on have went on to have solid rookie years or second years or whatever it may be.
“Lot of faith in my staff, lot of faith in the coaching staff – whether it’s draft or free agency or who we sign – that we will be able to develop them. I wish it woulda worked out with Daniel, but it didn’t. But that doesn’t deter me from taking one and having a lot of faith in the people that are in place to develop whoever it is.”
Heading into this year with Big Blue slated to make the third overall selection, Schoen said he didn’t want to “get into specifics” on what type of attributes they will be coveting for the next quarterback, but did say they have “done a lot of work on the college guys” as well as free agents and trade opportunities during the draft. But he did indicate it will come as no surprise they will be getting to know the top prospects on a more personal level.
“Film is one part of the equation and then from the draft standpoint you really gotta get around these kids,” Schoen said. “And I think it’s important part of our process that we try to get around these kids every year so when they are free agents or a trade opportunity presents itself you’ve spent an ample amount of times around these guys on who they are as people and their ability to learn and process information.”
