The deal is all but done. John Harbaugh is reportedly going to become the next coach of the New York Giants.
The news, initially broken by the New York Post and parroted by ESPN’s Adam Schefter shortly before midnight Thursday, is music to most Giants fans ears.
Harbaugh is a massive upgrade from any coach since Tom Coughlin and the team mutually parted ways in 2016. In fact, it could be argued the Giants now have the best head coach in the NFC East — especially with Eagles nation currently down on Nick Sirianni.
But most fans only know the Harbaugh name and pedree. But what are the Giants actually getting in John Harbaugh? Here are five things.
John Harbaugh Is A CEO-Type Coach
Sure, Harbaugh has presided over the Baltimore Ravens for so long that it’s easy to forget he was a special-teams coordinator before Baltimore hired him in 2008.
To Giants fans old enough to remember Coughlin, or Bill Parcells before him, that is the type of coach that the organization has had success with.
Parcells was a New England Patriots assistant when he was hired to be the Giants defensive coordinator before climbing the ranks to head coach and hiring an all-star staff that included Coughlin and Bill Belichick and won two Super Bowls.
Coughlin was an offensive coach under Parcells but became a delegator first for the Jacksonville Jaguars and then the Giants, where he of course won a pair of Super Bowls.
The point is, Harbaugh will not be calling plays on either side of the ball for the Giants — unlike, say Jim Fassel, who took over the offense while guiding the Giants on their run to Super Bowl XXXV.
That makes it imperative for Harbaugh to add competent coordinators in the days ahead.
John Harbaugh Is Loyal
Harbaugh, and his brother and former NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh, may both be great coaches. But unlike his brother, who has bounced between college and pro over his coaching career, John is loyal.
Of course, he spent 18 years in Baltimore. But John Harbaugh has worked for two NFL teams, the Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles under Andy Reid, in his nearly 30-year career coaching in the NFL.
That means that, at 63 years old, the Giants are likely to be his final stop coaching in the league.
John Harbaugh’s Ravens Blew Some Games Late
This may alarm some Giants fans, especially scarred ones that lived through the 2025 season. But the Ravens had a penchant for coughing up late leads, which is part of what led to his firing.
The Ravens lost two of their final three games despite leading in the fourth quarter in each of those games. Again, Harbaugh bears responsibility because his name is on the door/desk, and that continues the trend where Baltimore lost 12 games where it led by seven-plus points in the fourth quarter since 2021.
Giants fans would still take his regular-season success — especially since they are picking in the top-6 for the fourth time in six years. But the blown leads are something to keep in mind.
The Giants Will Have Strong Special Teams
Giants fans surely cringed over watching Jude McAtamney, Jamie Gillan and Younghoe Koo gaffe extra points while Graham Gano left them without a kicker after being injured in-game twice in the past two seasons.
Plus, Gillan and the Giants finished 30th in NET punting average (38.3) and 23rd in special teams DVOA (minus-2.3).
But those days are over. Harbaugh made his name coaching special teams first at the University of Cincinnati and then in the NFL in Philadelphia, and his special-teams units were often among the best in the NFL — especially when kicker Justin Tucker and Sam Koch were earning Pro Bowl honors.
So as a coach with a career .614 regular-season winning%, Harbaugh surely will emphasize the third phase better than his Giants predecessors.
John Harbaugh Is A Winner
The Giants have won the Super Bowl four times. They have produced some of the greatest coaches in NFL history such as Belichick, Parcells, Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi and more.
But John Harbaugh is the first head coach to start his tenure with the Giants already having won a Super Bowl ring as a head coach. His 180 career wins are more than the Giants have over the past 25 seasons, spanning back to 2001, and Harbaugh only started coaching in 2008.
Surely there were fans hoping for a younger, hungrier Giants head coach. But they have won 44 games in their past nine seasons, while Harbaugh was taking the Lamar Jackson-led Ravens to the playoffs six times in that span.
New York has posted double-digit losses in 10 of its past 12 seasons. The Giants could not put their faith in another unproven candidate. They needed to swing for the fences and land Harbaugh while he was available.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Five Things To Know About New Giants Coach John Harbaugh appeared first on Heavy Sports.