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Frank Viselli asks: With Daniel Bellinger signing with the Titans, I wonder if Brian Daboll being the new offensive coordinator had something to do with that? If so, why didn’t Daboll get him more involved as part of the Giants offense? I believe that Bellinger was very much under-utilized as a Giant.
Ed says: Frank, of course Daboll being in Tennessee had something to do with Bellinger signing there. I, too, found it interesting becuase of the way Bellinger was — and was not — used with the Giants.
Don Barone asks: Just a quick question. As impressive as Harbaugh’s collection of coaches is, I can’t help the feeling that there’s too many chefs in the kitchen. I am concerned that with so many former head coaches and high level coordinators that there will be lots of big egos leading to disagreements. Too much of a good thing. Thoughts?
Ed says: Don, this is a topic that I’ve asked both John Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy about.
I asked Harbaugh at the NFL Scouting Combine, because it was a question that had been coming up. His answer was fairly lengthy, and it was apparent he had given the idea of how everyone would work together consideration. Here is the entire answer:
“That’s part of organizing how you want to operate. I don’t think it really is determined by who’s had what experience so much as who they are as people and coaches and how they fit together. A big part of my job is to make sure that we do have alignment that way and that we are operating in a way that is efficient and effective and is together.
“Not just saying, okay, we’re going to collaborate and walking away. How are we going to organize our process? System building to me is really important.
“One of the systems is the plays and the way the offense operates. Another part of the system is how you operate the game planning part. How you operate practices. How you operate installing and teaching and preparing your guys.
“If we’re really intentional about all that, we should be organizing a system that all those play caller guys, all those great minds we have, are working together. How does that work? What do we do first? What do we do second? Who talks to who when?
“All those things are organized in a way that is intentional so that we can at the end of the day have the best game plan when we go on the field. Hopefully you see it in the way the guys play reflected because we’ve organized it in a good way.”
We had access to Nagy during rookie mini-camp. Here was his answer to the question:
“It’s really been invigorating for me,” Nagy said. “To your question, you have all these guys that have all this experience and backgrounds of coordinators, head coaches. There’s a lot. I mean, there’s a lot of guys.
“Going into this, you can look at it different ways. I think if you look at it one way you could say, well, my title is offensive coordinator, and it’s my job to do everything. That’s not true. We have so many – Coach Harbs did such a great job at bringing in guys with a ton of experience, and I’d be foolish to not use that. They’ve been amazing.
“It’s been so much fun putting this offense together, our offense here. I know a lot of different coaches with a lot of different backgrounds from different teams, a lot of different coaches with OC experience, head coaching experience.”
Nagy made sure to mention as many of the coaches as he could.
“You look at (passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach) Brian Callahan. Here’s a former head coach that’s now a quarterback coach and passing game coordinator. I did that in 2022 after I got fired in Chicago. I went back to Kansas City in the same role,” Nagy said.
“In that interview process with Calli, I wanted him to understand and know, it’s not easy doing what you’re doing. I have a ton of respect for what you are doing, and I’m going to be there. We’re going to team up together to tackle this thing together and make it ours.
“You get a guy like (senior offensive assistant) Greg Roman, who has been an offensive coordinator in our division in Kansas City last year, and here he is coming in and been doing this a long time. That’s awesome, the value that he brings.
“A guy like (offensive line coach) Mike Bloomgren has been a head coach at Rice. (Running backs coach) Willie Taggart has been a head coach at four or five different colleges. The experience goes on and on and on. You’ve got (tight ends coach) Tim Kelly, who was an offensive coordinator.
“For me it’s so important for all of us – and we talked about it – put the egos aside. Let’s make this ours. Let’s not worry about whose idea it is. Let’s make it our idea, and let’s run with it. Let’s make it make sense to the guys, and let’s go out there and figure out as we go through OTAs and into training camp what we’re going to look like.
“I can’t thank those guys enough, and it starts at the top with Coach Harbaugh. I’ve just been really, really fortunate and lucky, because it’s a beautiful staff.”
Part of the reason this can work is because Harbaugh is an established head coach who will have clear expectations for each assistant. The other part is that each of these coaches knows that for them to have a chance to climb back up the coaching ladder the Giants have to be successful, and that’s not going to happen unless they work together.
Ronald Lukoff asks: I hope I’m not going to seem like a downer because I’m really happy to have Harbaugh as our coach. But I wonder, what is the objective of the regular season? Is it to make the playoffs or to get to the Super Bowl? I’m fortunate in that I’ve seen the Giants in 5 Super Bowls and the excitement of that game is indescribable to me. I never felt that way about making the playoffs. This brings me to the question I would like to ask. What do you think about the fact that in 18 seasons, Harbaugh has been to the playoffs 12 times, but ONLY one Super Bowl (yes he won it, but only one). I feel as though his personnel was always good, Lamar Jackson, MVP, but again only one SB. Do you think he is a great regular season coach or can he get us to a SB. I hope I am 100% wrong and he can get us to the promised land. Your thoughts?
Ed says: Ronald, why does it seem like you are peering over the ledge at the end of May during an offseason that has brought a lot of optimism to the fan base?
You asked a bunch of questions. Let me try to get to each.
Yes, John Harbaugh has only been to and won one Super Bowl. But, he did accomplish it. Can he do it again? Of course he can. It doesn’t mean it will happen. No head coach has ever won a Super Bowl with two different teams. Seven — Don Shula, Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves, Dick Vermeil, Mike Holmgren, John Fox, Andy Reid — have coached multiple teams in the Super Bowl.
Fact is, Harbaugh is the most accomplished head coach the Giants have had since Tom Coughlin. Remember that Harbaugh’s Ravens competed against the Tom Brady era New England Patriots, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, and a Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos team that went to a pair of Super Bowls, winning one. The road has never been easy.
Every team wants to win the Super Bowl every year. The goal of the regular season? That is to get to the playoffs, or to at least put yourself in position to have a chance in the last couple of weeks to make the playoffs. Once you are in the playoffs then you are chasing a Super Bowl.
I think Harbaugh’s record is phenomenal. Twelve playoff appearances, and 15 winning seasons in 18 years. A Super Bowl title. The Giants have made two playoff appearances and won one playoff game over the past 14 seasons.
I know Ravens fans have issues with certain things Harbaugh did over the years, but over nearly two decades of course that is going to happen. I think the Giants would sign up for the kind of “problems” the Ravens experienced under Harbaugh.
Doug Mollin asks: There is always a PFF discussion on the boards and I hope you can help me understand it a little better. Let’s take Tyler Nubin as an example.
As a rookie, he had a 76 PFF grade. Made Brugler’s 2024 All-Rookie Team. Selected by PFF as the “breakout candidate” for the Giants in 2025.
And by PFF (and our own eyes), Nubin did not play well last year: a 57 grade.
Can PFF help us understand what happened? Or help predict what might happen in 2026? Or is it, “hey this is how Nubin played in 2025; how he plays in 2026 in anyone’s guess”?
In baseball, the analytics are so much more useful IMO. Even something simple like xERA versus actual ERA (xERA is what you’d expect the pitcher’s ERA to be based on a series of factors). So, if a pitcher finished the year with a 5.50 ERA and a 3.25 xERA, we can feel pretty good that there was some bad luck involved and is likely to have better results the following season (likely, not certain of course).
I guess the bottom line is — how is PFF best used to evaluate and predict player performance?
Ed says: Doug, I don’t think Pro Football Focus grades can be used for anything other than what they are — subjective scores for how a player performed based on the grader’s perception of what a player could or should have done on any given play.
The grades don’t give us any analysis of what a player did or did not do on any given play. They don’t account for what other players did or did not do, and how that may have impacted a player’s performance. The grades are based on what the analyst “thinks” was supposed to happen on a play. They don’t know for certain because they are not part of the coaching staff, and don’t know each player’s exact responsibilites and what they have been taught for each play or situation. Baseball analytics have nuance. PFF grades do not. They don’t tell us anything about the why, or how, and don’t consider circumstance in any real way.
As for using PFF scores in a predictive manner, they are not meant to do that, either. They tell you how the grader or graders believe a player did in an individual game or season. I guess you could use them as predictive if you looked at a player’s year over year trends and saw grades going consistently up or down, but that’s all.
I say it over and over, but PFF grades are a tool that should be used for discussion. They are not the be-all and end-all of determining player performance or deciding who is good and who is not. It might tell you generically who played well and who did not, but even that is debatable on a weekly basis. Many times our eyes tell us a different story than the PFF grades do.
Kölnerbigblue asks: Ed, with respect to trading Kayvon Thibodeaux sometime during camp for draft pick(s), what do you believe would be the impact on the locker room? A trade for a player could be a totally different dynamic depending upon the other player.
Ed says: Kölner, first and foremost you should know I do not believe that is going to happen. Unless someone offers a player-for-player deal you believe makes you better, trading Thibodeaux now seems counter-productive to being a good team.
As for the locker room, teams always have to consider the impact of their decisions on the players. A trade of Thibodeaux for draft picks before the season starts would not go over well, unless Thibodeaux were to burn some bridges and demand it. Which has not happened, and probably will not happen.
Gino Phillips asks: I appreciated your story on Wednesday on Tracy. I too believe that he does not garner the recognition that should be warranted. Too many writers are dooming the Giants’ running game if Skattebo is not 95%… The power running game might be weakened, but if Tracy accomplished what he did with the prior offenses, he should still be productive with the new one. For background, do you have any insight as to how Harbaush used an RB2 in Baltimore?
Ed says: Gino, in looking over Harbaugh’s history, every year has been different. That is part of being a good coach, being flexible enough to adapt to what you are working with. Harbaugh had Ray Rice at the beginning of his time in Baltimore and Derrick Henry at the end. Those are bellcow backs, and he rode them hard. In-between, he has had a variety of good but not great backs, and a look at the numbers reveals a division of labor. So, he has done it both ways.
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