When the Giants hired John Harbaugh as their head coach earlier this year, they changed one of the traditional modes of operation in the franchise by having Harbaugh report directly to ownership rather than to the General Manager.
There was further sign of Harbaugh’s outsize influence on the team’s direction when it was reported that the team’s new senior vice president of football operations and strategy Dawn Aponte will be reporting to Harbaugh. When the team hired Aponte, they said that her responsibilities will include being “responsible for strategic planning for football operations, analytics, salary cap management, player contract negotiations, compliance, and working closely with the college and pro personnel departments.”
Given those changes and Aponte’s job description, it is hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that GM Joe Schoen’s job has changed significantly from what it was in past years. Schoen pushed back at that notion during a press conference from the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, however.
“I’m still the General Manager of the team and my role has not changed. I’m still tasked with leading the entire football operation,” Schoen said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com.
Semantics may account for some of the mixed messages about how things will work for the Giants, but there seems to be little doubt that Harbaugh is now the biggest voice in the room on football matters.
