Before joining the New York Giants in 2023, wide receiver Gunner Olszewski spent the first four-plus seasons of his NFL career with the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers. Playing for Bill Belichick and Mike Tomlin wasn’t easy.
“It was hard as hell, and it sucked every day,” Olszewski said of his three seasons in New England. “That made Sunday not suck. I think everybody who played for (Belichick) would tell you the same thing. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday sucked, and you get to Sunday, and it was easy.”
Olszewski said Tomlin was “more fun,” but it was still a grind to play for the demanding Steelers coach.
“The things that make them special are consistency in what they expect from you and who they are every day,” Olszewski said. “With Bill and Mike T., your best is expected every day, bar none, from everybody. That always held true.”
The other consistent element was winning. The Patriots and Steelers combined for a 41-30 record in Olszewski’s time with the teams.
As the Giants seek a new head coach — their fifth since two-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin’s departure 10 years ago — players are welcoming the idea of a strict leader after going 20-40-1 under the lenient Brian Daboll, who was fired in November midway through his fourth season.
“You tell me, what do you think this team needs? Because losing sucks ass,” Olszewski said. “If it means that it’s going to be hard, but winning on Sunday is the best feeling in the world — guys here have been a part of a lot of losing seasons. They’d do a lot to win some games.”
Ask any veteran on the Giants — as The Athletic did late in their recently completed 4-13 season — about what the team needs in its next head coach and “accountability” was a unanimous refrain.
“You’ve got to hold people accountable in the team meeting,” said linebacker Neville Hewitt, who has played for four teams during his 11-year career. “You can’t be afraid that so-and-so is making $20 million or $30 million. If they’re not doing their job, you have to call them out.”
Setting a foundation is essential for any new coach. Not deviating from those standards is equally important.
“You’re in a room full of grown men, and you say something, and you stand on it. That goes a long way because now you’re letting guys know you’re a man of your word,” said running back Devin Singletary, who has played for three teams in seven seasons. “That’s important because it’s not like you’re working with kids. We’re all grown men, so we’ll see through the bulls—.”
Making exceptions for top draft picks or high-paid players is a fast way to lose respect in the locker room.
“When you start bouncing around that standard or not holding true to it for some guys, and other guys are getting off the hook, in the locker room, we notice that, and the culture doesn’t go the way you want it,” said wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins, who has played for four teams in his six-year career. “There’s a difference between being treated fairly and equally. A Hall of Fame quarterback like Aaron Rodgers isn’t going to get treated the same as a practice squad guy, but there’s still that same standard for all those guys.”
When players don’t meet the established standard, there needs to be consequences.
“There’s a level of respect and (a feeling of being) scared that I might lose my job. That matters,” said Hewitt, who played for DeMeco Ryans for two years in Houston before joining the Giants this season. “I don’t feel like you have to come in the building and cuss people out. That’s not how you get through. But if you know how to talk to somebody, you can bring them in like, ‘This is what I need from you. We’re not getting what we need from you. I don’t want it to get to a point where it goes upstairs (to the front office), and they want to get rid of you.’ You’ve got to be able to know how to work it.”
Hearing such messages from players with years of NFL experience suggests it’s not a coincidence that rookie first-round pick Abdul Carter raised his play and improved his work habits after getting benched twice for missing meetings by interim coach Mike Kafka.
“It’s a very young team, a lot of first-round picks,” Hewitt said. “With that, it’s young guys with money, so they don’t respect you to an extent. They’re not really going to do what they’re supposed to do.”
The youth of the Giants’ roster was mentioned by multiple veterans as a factor that demands strong leadership from a head coach. The Giants’ roster had six first-round picks still on their rookie contracts this season.
“When you have a young team, you need a head coach (who can) meet these players where they’re at, meaning from their mental capabilities and what they’re used to, but also have a strong, stern leadership environment,” said quarterback Jameis Winston, who has played for four teams in his 11-year career. “Some players don’t know what it looks like; they don’t know what winning looks like, so you’ve got to have a certain level of zero tolerance for the BS to create the culture you desire.”
Noticeably, there was little mention of schematics in the discussions with veterans about what makes a successful head coach.
“(Kyle) Shanahan was way bigger on X’s and O’s,” said Hodgins, who spent time with 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and Tomlin’s Steelers in the past year. “Crazy offensive mind with the scheme and how everything ties together. It’s very impressive to sit there and see that, but he’s big on culture. Shanahan was really demanding and had his standard, no matter who it was.”
Where top coaches consistently provide an advantage is their knowledge of opponents and matchups.
“On Wednesday morning, before you play Tennessee, they’re going to tell you who the head coach is, how the team is built and what the game is going to look like,” Olszewski said of Belichick and Tomlin. “And it would be 100 percent true on Sunday. Like, ‘If we do this, we will win.’ And if we did that, we won. And if we didn’t, we wouldn’t.”
Winston had an identical experience while playing for Sean Payton for two seasons in New Orleans.
“His planning, his situational football knowledge, his attention to detail — he has an incredible feel for how a game is to be played,” Winston said. “Every single week, he would tell me, ‘We’re winning this game because of this.’ And we would end up winning the game because of that. Whether it’s special teams, defense or offense, we can always find an edge.”
Olszewski’s old-school coaches provided an advantage before the season even began with grueling training camps.
“New England was a lot of running, and Pittsburgh was a lot of hitting. Every time we had full pads on, it was full (contact),” Olszewski said. “When you start the season, I feel like you win some games because some other teams that don’t hit, you can out-physical guys and out-run guys who maybe aren’t practicing as hard in training camp. I think that was an advantage to how both of them run their programs.”
That’s an approach any new coach must consider for the perpetually slow-starting Giants.
With those criteria in mind, it’s easy to see why John Harbaugh, who won 61.4 percent of his games in 18 seasons in Baltimore, has emerged as the Giants’ top target. Harbaugh’s resume will command instant respect if the Giants land the Super Bowl champion. But will he be the right fit for this roster? Or would the Giants be better with a younger, fast-rising coach?
“It’s really hard to put your finger on,” said offensive lineman Greg Van Roten, who has played for eight teams in 12 NFL seasons. “There are so many variables, so many moving parts. There really is no one-size-fits-all, or this is what you need, this is what’s going to help this.”’
Hiring a coach is an inexact science, as the Giants’ repeated misses have demonstrated. As ownership prepares to make another head-coaching hire, these insights from the locker room should help direct their search.
