By Devon Henderson, Dan Duggan, Dianna Russini and Ian O’Connor
Negotiations are progressing between former Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh and the New York Giants. The franchise worked late into Friday night to draft an initial contract offer and sent it to Harbaugh’s representation, league sources told The Athletic.
The contract is about 40 pages long, league sources said. Both parties are still negotiating aspects of the deal.
The New York Giants worked late Friday night on Harbaugh’s contract and sent it over to his reps.
Both sides still going through it.
I’d expect a little more back and forth….
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) January 17, 2026
League sources confirmed to The Athletic that they are working on the contract and remain optimistic that a deal will get done in time to announce Harbaugh as the Giants’ next coach by Tuesday. Harbaugh was in talks Friday with general manager Joe Schoen and senior Giants executive Chris Mara. Those sources described the conversations as productive.
League sources also said that Harbaugh’s side wants total clarity on who the coach will report to and would prefer a situation similar to the one he had in Baltimore. With the Ravens, Harbaugh reported directly to owner Steve Bisciotti, the sources said, rather than either of the general managers who worked alongside Harbaugh in Baltimore (Ozzie Newsome from 2008 to 2018 and Eric DeCosta from 2019 to the present).
The Giants have typically used a different front-office hierarchy in which coaches report to the GM — in this case, Schoen — who then reports to co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch. Schoen is entering the final year of his contract as the Giants’ GM. Over the last three seasons with Schoen running the franchise’s football operations, the Giants have a record of 13-38.
As the Giants-John Harbaugh negotiations continue, here’s a nugget that I’ve learned: Harbaugh didn’t report to the GM in Baltimore. He reported directly to owner Steve Bisciotti.
That hasn’t been the Giants’ chain of command historically. Getting a sense for why this hasn’t…
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) January 17, 2026
Harbaugh had strong partnerships in Baltimore with Newsome, considered one of the best GMs in NFL history, and with DeCosta, considered one of the best in the league today. DeCosta was a friend of Harbaugh’s and also his neighbor. Harbaugh is seeking the same kind of collaborative partner in Schoen and believes he can achieve that, according to league sources, but the coach wants a direct report to Giants ownership.
The deal is expected to pay Harbaugh about $20 million annually for five years, two sources directly involved in the process confirmed to The Athletic.
The 63-year-old Harbaugh would be a marquee hire for the Giants. With 180 wins as an NFL head coach and a Super Bowl championship on his resume, up to nine NFL franchises expressed interest in hiring Harbaugh since Baltimore fired the coach on Jan. 6.
If he becomes the Giants’ next head coach, Harbaugh will be looking to turn around an organization that has endured a decade of poor results. After parting ways with former head coach Tom Coughlin following the 2015 season, the Giants have gone 55-109-1, giving them a .336 win percentage. Only the New York Jets’ .297 win percentage has been worse in that span. Harbaugh would be the Giants’ fifth full-time head coach since the end of Coughlin’s tenure.
