Ravens colleagues and league sources who have competed vs. Baltimore view Harbaugh’s enthusiasm as a great fit for a team with young players to engage. His culture building, others said, could instill the discipline some members of the roster have lacked in recent years.
Just over a year ago, on Jan. 6, 2025, New England Patriots team owner Robert Kraft addressed reporters.
Less than a year after promoting Jerod Mayo to head coach, Kraft was facing another coaching search. The Patriots had a promising first-round rookie quarterback in Drake Maye and a slew of talented players. But that combination had produced only four wins, and Kraft believed there was more to unlock.
“I don’t like losing,” he said. “I don’t like losing the way we lost. Things were not developing the way we would have liked.
“I have to go out and find a coach who can get us back to the playoffs and hopefully championships.”
So the Patriots kept the general manager who found their quarterback and they capitalized on the marketability of a storied franchise with its biggest roster question seemingly answered.
In came former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, who had previously played for the Patriots. A year later, the Patriots are readying for their second home playoff game to cap off Vrabel’s first season.
The turnaround speed has been remarkable. So has the rapid shift in Patriots culture. The NFL took note — and now, one of the nine teams who moved on from their head coach is following a similar blueprint with hopes of similar results.
Promising first-round quarterback on rookie contract wins four games. General manager who found the quarterback stays in place. Coach out. Club pursues established coach with track record of success.
Hello, seemingly imminently New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh.
When the Baltimore Ravens fired their 18-year coach who won a Super Bowl, Harbaugh immediately became the most attractive candidate on the market. Baltimore, similarly, rose to the top of the most attractive openings — but the Giants moved down only one spot, to second place and thus first of teams Harbaugh could consider.
The marquee franchise in the league’s biggest market drafted Jaxson Dart 25th overall last spring. In his 14 games (12 starts) this season, Dart completed 63.7% of his passes for 2,272 yards, 15 touchdowns and five interceptions while rushing for another 489 yards and nine scores.
Dart allured a coach accustomed to game-planning with a dual-threat quarterback in Lamar Jackson. The Ole Miss product even reportedly met with Harbaugh on his Wednesday visit.
The negotiation tenor that followed seemed to indicate what league sources believed: Harbaugh and Dart were each the best partner the other could land this cycle. The high-energy marriage that looms intrigues opponents.
“There’s something to be said for guys who have proven themselves,” one person with franchise familiarity said of Harbaugh. “Throughout the league, a lot of people hire [coaches] just because they call good plays. Being a head coach is so much more than calling plays.
“I think the direction the Giants are going in is the right direction.”
What the Giants offer Harbaugh
At Giants general manager Joe Schoen’s end-of-season news conference, he touted “leadership” as the top quality he’d search for in the Giants’ next head coach. Football acumen, player development and a plan at quarterback followed.
Harbaugh rose to the top, checking these boxes.
Ravens colleagues and league sources who have competed against the Ravens view Harbaugh’s enthusiasm as a great fit for a team with young players to engage. Harbaugh’s culture building, others said, could instill the discipline some members of the roster have lacked in recent years. His message, some believe, could resonate even more in a new building than in the hallways through which he has spoken them through 293 regular-season games (180 wins) and 12 playoff berths.
Harbaugh led the Ravens to a Super Bowl title following the 2012 season. He has since won four of 11 postseason contests.
The Giants have a young core to build around in Dart, 2025 rookie running back Cam Skattebo and 2024 first-round draft pick Malik Nabers on offense. Abdul Carter, the edge rusher New York selected third overall in 2025, rounded into an effective edge rusher by year’s end. Dart and Carter also each took on increasing leadership roles as the season elapsed.
“We can’t accept what happened this year to happen ever again,” Dart said the final week of the season. “I’m excited for the offseason to grow the culture and help put my hand in it. But it’s going to have me and everybody else sick that we’re going to have to watch other teams play [in the playoffs].”
Dart said he would lead moving forward with “the highest expectation” for teammates; he said Carter shared a similar message in a team huddle for the final game.
“We just have that energy and the outlook,” Dart said, “that it’s just the only way it can go.”
The mentality is not dissimilar from that of Harbaugh. The longtime Ravens coach and previous special teams coordinator leads with an emphasis on positivity and growth, moments threading across his Baltimore leadership through his final game as Ravens coach. Ravens kicker Tyler Loop had missed the game-winning field goal that decided the AFC North; Harbaugh who comforted Loop and reassured him as the two walked through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ stadium tunnel minutes after what would later become Harbaugh’s final game as Ravens coach.
The Giants’ talent pool generates mixed responses from opponents. Some league sources whose clubs faced the Giants this season viewed New York’s 2025 roster as a list of individuals including some talented standouts rather than a team adept at channeling those talents collectively to achieve more. Nabers’ season-ending ACL tear in Dart’s debut start hurt the offense’s potential, as did Skattebo’s October sustaining of an open tibia fracture, ruptured deltoid ligament and right ankle dislocation.
But their return could help improve the offense’s explosion in Dart’s second year. And defensively, the Giants’ front boasts Carter, Dexter Lawrence II, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
An opponent who played the Giants credited the defensive line as an area they “have gotten right.” Criticism of Lawrence slowing down, the opponent said, may speak more to the increased speed of the linemen around him.
Dart’s continued development will be key to Harbaugh achieving success with the Giants. That opportunity also helped New York land the big fish.
“There are a lot of potential head-coaching candidates,” Schoen said Jan. 6, “that are excited about the opportunity here because of Jaxson Dart.”
What coach, scheme will Harbaugh choose for Dart?
It’s arguably too soon to settle on coordinator expectations with eight head-coaching roles in flux even after Harbaugh’s negotiations moved seemingly from a matter of if to when.
But there is an expectation that Harbaugh will bring to New York his most recent Baltimore offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, if Monken does not get a head-coaching job.
The Cleveland Browns interviewed Monken, who coordinated their offense in 2019, for the Browns’ top role last Saturday.
How would Monken’s offense look in New York?
“It will be different,” one AFC assistant who faced the Ravens in Monken’s tenure told Yahoo Sports. “He walked into a situation with Lamar Jackson and [Derrick] Henry. Those are two Hall of Fame players…so it will be different.”
And yet, the AFC assistant believed Monken’s philosophies could cater to Dart’s skill set.
“I think he does a great job with marrying up the run with the play action,” the assistant said. “A balanced offense.”
Another AFC executive described Monken as “naturally a pass-oriented play caller” but one who has “adapted to different guys and been explosive.”
Developing Dart into an explosive but less reckless quarterback will be key after a rookie year that included five concussion checks, per ESPN, and two games missed to concussion.
Nail that risk-reward analysis, and the Giants have an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the Patriots — who beat the Los Angeles Chargers in last weekend’s wild-card round and host the Houston Texans in this week’s divisional round.
In his second season, Maye is among betting favorites for MVP. Vrabel, in his first year at the Patriots helm, is among Coach of the Year favorites.
“There’s certainly an opportunity that you look at those franchises and how they put it together in a quick turnaround,” Schoen said of the Patriots and the Chicago Bears’ 2025 success. “In an ideal world, yeah, that would be it.
“That would be the goal. That would be ideal.”
Category: General Sports
