EAST RUTHERFORD - From the moment he accepted the job as head coach of the New York Giants, John Harbaugh promised everyone would get a fair shot at earning his trust and respect. There is a reason why the windshield of a car is much larger than its rear-view mirror, and for his part, Harbaugh has tried to keep his focus on the Giants and the task at hand, not the previous 18 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. It's also why Giants general manager Joe Schoen should now be judged on the present and the future as the Harbaugh era begins. Simply put, why would Schoen not be offered the same clean slate the Giants, with Harbaugh on board, have given the players and all those still here? Because when assessing Schoen and his performance, the question that begs for an answer is this one: When does the past become the past for Schoen and the Giants, allowing what comes next to become the true indicator of what the future holds now that he has signed a contract extension and isn't going anywhere? Harbaugh's presence and the hiring of Dawn Aponte as senior vice president of football operations and strategy do not make Schoen irrelevant, nor does it relegate him to a role as a glorified scout, which has been a misguided perception for some.
Schoen might just become a much more effective GM in the aftermath, and with that, we all may eventually look back at the arrival of Harbaugh as the turning point of his career in the NFL. If that were to happen, it would not be the first time. Les Snead is considered one of the best GMs in the business today in charge of the Los Angeles Rams, but that was not always the case. There were significant calls for his firing when the Rams fired Jeff Fisher, yet Snead stayed with a new head coach, Sean McVay. Together, Snead and McVay have won a Super Bowl while adapting their roster-building philosophies to the circumstances, and there is no talk of a divorce anymore. The Rams are positioned as the favorites to win the Super Bowl again this year, and they are seen as one of the model franchises in the league. Schoen is gaining priceless intel on a daily basis with great appreciation for how to do the job better in tandem with Harbaugh, not at his beck and call despite the perception created by some fans and others in the media. The 47-year-old Schoen has not lost sight of the responsibility he owns in this situation, how the Giants have failed to meet expectations for a variety of reasons over the past four seasons. Harbaugh has offered nothing but praise for Schoen as the Giants have progressed through all the touch points of the NFL offseason together. That pairing now faces the pressure of the upcoming season, just as every team does, and it's a continuous process trying to figure out how to maximize options to strengthen this roster. When former No. 7 overall pick Evan Neal gets released, Schoen's overall resume takes the hit. How much of a hit given where the Giants are right now depends on perspective, and whether Schoen's Giants are willing to accept what went wrong with the selection and dig deep as to why Neal did not work out. In Harbaugh, Schoen now has a Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer with whom he can team and strive for that standard the Giants have failed to meet for far too long now. "Yeah, some days I just pinch myself; I'm like, 'Man, John Harbaugh's our head coach,'" Schoen said with a smile back in March. "This guy's won a ton of games. He's a really good head coach and just listening to him talk and how he thinks, and the leadership that he provides to the building, it's been really cool. It's been a cool experience." Embracing that shared vision for the Giants is the priority for this team to become the one both believe it can be. Because truth be told, Schoen was never really fighting to save his job and stay with the Giants. He was given the opportunity by ownership to evolve and adapt to the standard Harbaugh was looking to establish at 1925 Giants Drive, and across all departments, just as everyone else from top to bottom in the organization was. And now that we're only days from the Giants kicking off the 2026 season in prime time against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Sept. 13, there's no looking back. "Yeah, we're going to be prepared. We're going to be prepared for the game," Schoen said, asked Wednesday if he knows what to expect from a Harbaugh-coached team. "We're going to be physical. You're going to have to go 60 minutes to compete with us. And we're going to be disciplined on both sides of the ball. And we're going to be ready to go. I know we're going to be ready to go. Week in, week out, we'll be ready." Lessons learned, and those will continue; if the Giants stop holding a mirror up to themselves, for successes and failures, what has been a brutal history at times over the past decade-plus will repeat itself, regardless of how much this franchise believes in Harbaugh and what he represents. "Of course, we expect to win. How do you go out there and compete at this level if you don't expect to win?" Harbaugh said. "If you don't expect to win, you certainly aren't going to. I've said this before, we expect and we plan to and we'll be playing to win every single one of our games this year. That's our expectation, that's our plan, that's what we'll be striving for. We think we can, we believe we can wholeheartedly." The Giants are hardly a perfect team with seven wins total over the past two years, and there were upgrades needed, to be sure. Harbaugh knows by now what a winning roster looks like, so he also knows what he wanted his Giants roster to look like. Which is why some of the moves Big Blue has made don't necessarily match up with outside expectations for what this franchise has done on paper in recent years. They believe in their 23-year-old quarterback, Jaxson Dart. Malik Nabers is a game changer. The offensive line has the potential to be the Giants' best in more than a decade. The pass rush is one of the tops in the league. The inside linebacker room has been completely flipped, going from one of the thinnest to a strength with Tremaine Edmunds and rookie Arvell Reese leading the way. "I feel good about our guys, but that's always something that has to be proven," Harbaugh said. "That's our mission. Our mission statement is to be the best team in the National Football League and prove it because that's what it requires. I mean, I know they'll go out there and be the very best football team they can be. That's my expectation. What that ends up being depends on how good we are. And that's what you find out when you play the games. Everything else is just talk." How much all of this means to Schoen was lost initially with all the speculation about his immediate future. Not just from the moment Harbaugh agreed to join the Giants, but the opportunity for a GM to work with Harbaugh, whose 193 career wins - 180 in the regular season - are more than Bill Parcells, Tom Coughlin, Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher and Mike Holmgren. Schoen knows how much this meant not just to him, but to everybody in the franchise. "Coach is very invested in this, when we drafted this player, or signed this player, or hey, we got an idea, what, maybe move this player that plays center to guard, or whatever, maybe the versatility, he's typically on board with that, and he's, again, part of the process," Schoen said. "He knows the league, he pays attention to players around the league, and that's helpful when you're going through the process of acquiring players, whether it be free agency or the draft. So, to me, not only is he a really good coach, he's immersed in the personnel, and he's helpful, makes us think outside the box, challenges us. And that's what has ultimately led to a lot of good conversations, communication, ultimately making the best decision for the New York Giants." Schoen ran point on the coaching search that ended with the Giants hitting a home run by bringing Harbaugh aboard judging by the social media reaction and the many false predictions that, once Harbaugh entered the building, he would be escorting the GM out. For the Giants, what matters more than anything is how Schoen and Harbaugh have come together under the pressure and scrutiny of their first eight months together. It's time to play the games. If and when the standard set by Harbaugh is met, nothing else that has happened previously will matter. Not to Harbaugh, not to Schoen and not to these Giants, who will now be judged by their ability to win again. This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: If John Harbaugh gave Giants 'clean slate,' Joe Schoen gets one, too