On Monday, Giants GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll met the media to put a bow on the team’s successful 2022 season.
This season, New York, who made the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and won a playoff game for the first time since 2011, looks like a team that could be on the rise.
Obviously, the Giants have some questions that they have to answer.
Daniel Jones:
Daniel Jones played well this season and made some strides. In 2022, Jones had a career-high in yards(3,205), rushing yards(708), and rushing touchdowns(7), and he protected the football(five interceptions), but he’s an unrestricted free agent who will definitely get a raise.
Schoen was asked a series of questions by the media related to Jones:
Q: Do you plan on re-signing (quarterback) Daniel (Jones)?
Schoen: “We’d like Daniel to be here. Again, he said it yesterday – there’s a business side to it. We feel like Daniel played well this season. He’s done everything that we’ve asked him to do. Again, there’s a business side to it. We haven’t went down that road yet. We still have to have our meetings with our staff late in the week, and we’ll devise an offseason plan. We haven’t had those meetings yet, but we would like to have Daniel Jones back.”
Q: Having said that, when did you know? You and Dabs came in and had to do your due diligence and see what you had in Daniel (Jones) and everybody else. When did you make the decision, both of you guys, ‘This guy is our guy to move forward with,’?
Schoen: “I don’t know if there was necessarily an ‘Aha’ moment or anything like that. We just continued to evaluate him throughout the season and what the coaches were asking him to do. And he was executing the game plans. Dabs and I communicate on a daily basis – not just Dabs and I, but the offensive staff and what they’re asking him to do. He continued to improve throughout the season. I don’t know the exact date or time when we’re like, ‘Daniel is our guy,’ but we’re pleased with how he played this season.”
Q: When you say you want Daniel (Jones) back, ideally would you like that to be a long-term deal or a multi-year deal?
Schoen: “We’re going to get into all that. Again, it takes two. Both sides have got to have those conversations. We haven’t crossed that bridge yet. There’s tools at our disposal. Again, we’ll go through several scenarios. It’s kind of like I mentioned it last year, maybe it was at the combine, with the ‘if, then’ scenarios. You got to go through all those because you don’t know how things are going to fall because it’s negotiating. This is why you love the draft – you turn in the card, and they’re yours. You know what the contract structure is; you know the years. This is where there’s two parties involved, and it’s going to be time consuming. We’ll get together as a staff. We’ll talk through the different options and have those discussions when it’s appropriate.”
Q: Do you view Daniel (Jones) as a quarterback who can help you win a Super Bowl?
Schoen: We’re happy Daniel’s going to be here. We’re happy he’s going to be here. Hopefully we can get something done with his representatives. And that would be the goal – to build a team around him where he can lead us and win a Super Bowl.
Saquon Barkley:
In addition, Giants running back Saquon Barkley can also be an unrestricted free agent. After two consecutive injury-riddled seasons, Barkley broke out in 2022 as he rushed for a career-high 1312 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Schoen was also asked a series of questions by the media related to Barkley:
Q: Obviously you need a new contract with (running back) Saquon (Barkley). Is that somebody, also, you also would like to keep, and is the franchise tag a possibility?
Schoen: “Again, this is a special team to me. It was my first year. We’d like to have all the guys back, I really would. But there’s a business side to it. There’s rules that you need to operate under in terms of the salary cap. Saquon, he’s a good player. He’s a great teammate. I loved getting to know him this season. He’s a guy we would like to have back. It’s just, again, we haven’t had our end-of-season meetings yet. We’re less than 48 hours after that game. Everybody is going to step back, take the emotion out of it, evaluate the roster and then we’ve got to operate under the salary cap. How are you going to divvy up? How are we going to create the roster? What are the priority positions, and how are we going to move forward? We would like to have Saquon back if it works out.”
Q: With Saquon (Barkley), how do you view running back positional value versus he’s also, other than Daniel (Jones), your best playmaker?
Schoen: “Listen, Saquon has done everything we’ve asked him to do, and he’s a good football player. Again, the positional value – we’ll get into how we want to build this team and allocate our resources. That’s what it comes down to. Again, he’s a good football player. He was durable for us this year; he played well. And again, he’s a guy that we would like to have back.”
Q: On Saquon (Barkley), when you try to determine his financial value – how much do you factor in character and contribution to culture as opposed to talent when it comes to that evaluation?
Schoen: “If that wasn’t important, we probably wouldn’t be approaching him. So, that’s kind of a starter for us – if you’re a good teammate, you’re a culture fit for how we want to do things. That’s where we go to those players. We don’t factor in – when you’re making comps (comparisons), it’s hard to put a value on that. It’s important, but you can look at how many yards, touchdowns, Pro Bowls, games played, games missed. Those are more markers that we can establish value on. We wouldn’t approach him or look to sign a guy if they didn’t fit our culture if we didn’t think so.”
Q: How close were you with him (Saquon Barkley in bye week conversations)? How close were you with him, and did you consider yourself close when you had that conversation?
Schoen: “We had productive conversations. We were off on the value. Again, we said we would circle back up at the end of the season and continue those conversations, but that time of year, we weren’t really that close I would think.”
Reports are leaning toward the Giants bringing back Jones and Barkley. It’s just a matter of how they are going to do it. Not completely sold on Jones being the guy, but if New York can finally build a complete roster around him, then maybe you can win with him. He’s proven that he can win, but can you win big with Jones? Time will be the judge.
In the offseason, the New York Giants had the opportunity to pick up the fifth-year option for their quarterback Daniel Jones, but the team decided against it, and now Jones can become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
After eight games, Jones is playing some decent football for the Giants. First, he has this team off to a very surprising 6-2 start. Next, Jones has thrown for 1399 yards and six touchdowns. Also, he’s getting it done on the ground with 363 yards and three rushing touchdowns. Finally, the thing that has plagued Jones in his career, the turnovers, has been limited this season. He has thrown only two interceptions and lost only two fumbles.
During the bye week, Giants GM Joe Schoen said that he might discuss contracts with some players, but according to Jones, he was not one of them.
In addition, the fourth-year quarterback says he has yet to speak much to his agent about a new deal.
“I’m focused on playing the best I can, and that’s kind of been my outlook the whole time,” Jones said Tuesday. “I play the best I can and let the other stuff work itself out.”
When asked if he had more to prove, the 25-year-old Jones said the following;
“I think there’s always more to do. I think just for me. Personally, I think I have expectations of myself and goals for myself to continue to improve week to week. How that’s seen by other people is really out of my control. So, for myself and personally, I want to improve every week and continue to put this team in a position to win games.”
Look, Jones has been solid this season. He is doing it with both his arm and legs, but he’s not Schoen or Brian Daboll’s guy, and while Jones has been solid, he has benefitted from a great running game and an opportunistic defense, but his receivers have been very average.
The Giants will probably make the playoffs unless they fall off a cliff. However, New York still has to upgrade the quarterback position. Again, Jones is solid, but New York can do better.
Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll became the first Giants head coach candidate to have a second interview for the position, team team announced Tuesday.
According to the team, the 46-year-old Daboll spent the day at the team’s Quest Diagnostics Training Center and met with team president John Mara, chairman Steve Tisch, senior vice president of player personnel Chris Mara and Joe Schoen, who was hired last week as the Giants’ new general manager. He also met with other members of the front office and toured the facility.
Daboll’s first interview was Friday evening via video conference with John Mara, Tisch and Schoen.
The Giants hosted Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn for an interview yesterday. The team has also conducted interviews via teleconference with Buffalo defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier on Saturday and on Sunday with Cincinnati Bengals’ defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who was the Giants’ defensive backs coach in 2018.
Schoen and Daboll have worked together with the Bills for the last four seasons.
In 2021, Daboll’s offense excelled as Buffalo won its second straight AFC East title with an 11-6 record. The Bills finished third in the NFL with 28.4 points a game and fifth with 381.9 yards a game. Quarterback Josh Allen finished sixth in the league with a franchise-record 409 completions, seventh with 36 touchdown passes and eighth with 4,407 yards. Allen’s favorite target, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, caught 103 passes for 1,225 yards and 10 touchdowns.
This postseason, the Bills routed New England, 47-17, in a wild card playoff game and lost to the defending AFC champion Chiefs, 42-36 in overtime, on Sunday night in Kansas City in a divisional round game.
In 2020, Daboll was voted the AP’s NFL Assistant Coach of the Year after the Bills finished 13-3 and unseated longtime powerhouse New England atop the division. Allen finished second in the NFL most valuable player voting after setting Buffalo single season franchise records with 4,544 yards, 37 touchdown passes, a 69.2 completion percentage and a 107.2 passer rating.
Daboll has 20 years of NFL coaching experience. He spent 11 seasons with the New England Patriots (2000-06, 2013-16) in a variety of roles and helped the franchise win five Super Bowls (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX and LI). Daboll has been an offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns (2009-10), Miami Dolphins (2011) and Chiefs (2012). He was also the Jets’ quarterbacks coach in 2007-08.
Obviously, Schoen and Daboll know each other very well, so if Schoen believes in Daboll, he’ll probably be the guy for the Giants.
The Giants have hired former Bills assistant GM Joe Schoen as their head of football operations, the team announced Friday.
Schoen has spent the last five seasons as the Buffalo Bills’ assistant general manager. He was the first of nine candidates to interview for the Giants’ general manager position, and now he has the job.
“We are pleased and proud to name Joe as our general manager,” said Giants president John Mara. “Throughout our search, Joe impressed us with his ability to communicate a progressive and comprehensive vision for our team. His philosophy and collaborative approach to building a roster and coaching staff align with what we were looking for in a general manager.”
The 42-year-old Schoen replaces Dave Gettleman, who was the GM for the Giants for four seasons before announcing his retirement in early January. In addition, the Giants fired head coach Joe Judge at season’s end.
“Joe is the kind of exceptional leader we sought to oversee our football operations,” said chairman Steve Tisch. “We will do whatever it takes to support Joe’s vision and strategic plan for success. We are excited to begin this next chapter with Joe as our general manager.”
On Tuesday, Schoen visited the Giants’ headquarters, the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, where he met in person with the three executives as well as other members of the team’s front office and toured the facility.
“Steve and I were both impressed with all nine candidates,” said John Mara. “We came away from this process feeling like all nine will be a general manager in this league at some point. We just felt like Joe was the right fit at the right time for us.”
Since joining the Bills in 2017, Schoen has teamed with general manager Brandon Beane to make Buffalo a regular postseason participant and current championship contender. The Bills, who won their second straight AFC East title this season, visit Kansas City Sunday for a divisional playoff game.
“It is an honor to accept the position of general manager of the New York Giants,” said Schoen. “I want to thank John Mara and Steve Tisch and their families for this tremendous opportunity. And obviously I am grateful to Brandon and the Bills for the experience I have had in Buffalo.
“Now, the work begins. My immediate focus is to hire a head coach, with who I will work in lockstep with to create a collaborative environment for our football operations. We will cast a wide net, it can be former head coaches, first-time head coaches but, more importantly, it has to be a person who possesses the ability to lead an organization and the ability to motivate and develop players. On the personnel side, we will begin to evaluate our roster and prepare for the draft and free agency. Our goal is to build a roster that will be competitive, have depth, and most importantly, win football games.”
Since Schoen became Beane’s top associate and they hired coach Sean McDermott, Buffalo has earned a postseason berth in four of five seasons, advanced to the 2020 AFC Championship Game and usurped six-time Super Bowl champion New England as the AFC East’s best team.
Beane and Schoen have acquired the large majority of the players that have fueled Buffalo’s successful run, including quarterback Josh Allen, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, running back Devin Singletary, tight end Dawson Knox, linebacker Tremaine Edmonds and safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer.
Schoen has 20 years of scouting and executive experience in the NFL. Prior to moving to Buffalo, he spent most of the previous decade in the Miami Dolphins’ front office, including the last four years as the team’s director of player personnel.
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Joe Schoen today had his second interview for the Giants’ vacant general manager position, the team announced Monday.
Schoen is the first candidate to have a second interview.
According to the team, Schoen met with president John Mara, chairman Steve Tisch and senior vice president of player personnel Chris Mara at the team’s Quest Diagnostics Training Center. He also sat down with other members of the team’s front office and toured the facility.
The Buffalo Bills’ assistant general manager, Schoen has 20 years of scouting and executive experience in the NFL, including the last five in Upstate New York. He joined the Bills in 2017 after spending most of the previous decade in the Miami Dolphins’ front office, including the last four as the team’s director of player personnel.
Schoen’s first year in Miami was 2008 when he began a five-year stint as one of the Dolphins’ national scouts before spending the 2013 season as their assistant director of college scouting.
The 42-year-old Schoen led Miami’s preparation, assessment and acquisition of potential professional and collegiate free agents. He was heavily involved in Miami’s NFL draft, including evaluation and draft board construction while also serving as a key liaison between the coaching staff and personnel staff.
The Giants are looking to hire a general manager and coach after GM Dave Gettleman retired and the team fired head coach Joe Judge.
