Life comes at you fast when you are hired to become the general manager of the Giants. There is not a moment to waste for Joe Schoen. Here are five items that should be at or near the top of his to-do list:
Find a head coach
No kidding. One of the big reasons Joe Judge was not given a third season was the desire to sync up the new general manager with his hand-picked head coach. The first big decision for Schoen, the former Bills assistant GM, could be the biggest one he ever makes. It is not as simple as finding a handful of candidates and then picking Brian Daboll, the offensive coordinator in Buffalo.
Schoen watched as Brandon Beane hired and struck gold with Sean McDermott. Now Schoen has to uncover his own gem, no matter where the search takes him.
Evaluate the quarterback
“What do you think of Daniel Jones?’’ was one of the very first questions the owners asked of the GM candidates. It is believed that Schoen said he can make it work with Jones, that Jones was hurt by a bad offensive line and too many injuries to his skill players.
Expect Jones, if his sprained neck is fully healed, to be the No. 1 quarterback in 2022. That does not mean the Giants will ignore the position. Schoen will upgrade the competition around Jones, but do not dismiss the possibility of taking a quarterback in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. Schoen, in his first year with Buffalo, watched Tyrod Taylor help the Bills end a 17-year playoff drought, but that didn’t stop the team from taking Josh Allen with its first pick in the 2018 draft.
Read the room
Schoen cannot come in and start firing members of the personnel department. There is free agency to get into and all the Giants’ scouts are in the late stages of putting together their reports on draft-eligible players. They cannot all be dismissed and replaced with a new group. Schoen will have to scout his own personnel departments and determine who stays and who goes. There will be changes, but not immediately, because the football work must go on unfettered. Eventually, Schoen will bring in some of his own people.
Revise the roster
You can be sure Schoen, during his sit-down interview with ownership, offered a detailed appraisal of the entirety of the Giants’ roster, from top to bottom. There is always change season to season and even more so when the guy who drafted so many of the players is no longer calling the shots. It is inaccurate to say, “No one is safe,’’ but it is entirely accurate to say, “Some who we think are safe are not.’’ Schoen has to heal up the sickly salary cap situation and that means lopping off contracts. Schoen certainly gave his thoughts on Saquon Barkley (due $7.2 million in 2022) and, soon enough, we will learn how those thoughts turn into action, one way or another.
Fire up the laptop
When Schoen got to Buffalo, he and Beane walked into a barren front-office situation, as far as a comprehensive analytics department was concerned. There really was not much of one. Five years later, the Bills are state of the art. The Giants made strides in Dave Gettleman’s later years as general manager, but there is more work to be done. Schoen has the authority to overhaul whatever he sees fit, and that means the Giants will be ramping up their analytics usage and deployment.