Big Blue View
The New York Giants came to an agreement with former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh late Wednesday night.
In doing so, the Giants immediately brought stability to a rudderless franchise and delivered true hope to the fanbase for the first time since the 2023 off-season. The veteran coach is lauded as a “culture builder” who eschews concentrating on either side of the ball in favor of overseeing the whole roster and leaving his offensive and defensive coordinators to run their units.
That, however, brings us to the question of who will run the offense and defense for the Giants. Let’s look at some of the possibilities.
Defense has been the fanbase’s main pain point over the last year, but the development of Jaxson Dart is paramount to the Giants’ — and Harbaugh’s — long term success. That will make the offensive coordinator hire one of the most important moves of the off-season.
Todd Monken – Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator at Baltimore is the natural first option. In fact, the current belief is that biggest obstacle to Monken becoming the Giants’ offensive coordinator is the possibility that the Cleveland Browns could hire him to be their head coach.
Monken is a creative and experienced play-caller who has had success at both the collegiate and NFL levels. He called a pair of National Championship offenses for the Georgia Bulldogs in 2021 and 2022, and also helped develop Lamar Jackson into more of a Pro Style passer in 2023 and 2024 after Greg Roman’s read-option based offense grew stale. Monken runs what is generally termed a “spread offense”, but is an amalgamation of a wide range of concepts and philosophies from both college and the NFL.
Harbaugh fought for Monken to remain in Baltimore, which is believed to be one of the reasons the Ravens fired him. So, it makes sense Harbaugh would bring him to the Giants.
Mike Kafka – The Giants’ offensive coordinator and interim head coach from 2022 to 2025 is the best option to provide stability and continuity for Jaxson Dart. In addition to his relationship with Dart, nobody knows the Giants’ offensive personnel better than Kafka, which would allow him to hit the ground running. The Giants’ offense has consistently punched over its weight class with Kafka calling it, however he’s never had the opportunity to build an offense from the ground up.
Kafka has already drawn interest from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions for their offensive coordinator positions.
Mike McDaniel – This is the big name pie in the sky hope. McDaniel is in high demand as an offensive coordinator and also getting interviews for open head coaching positions. That said, he’s one of the NFL’s best offensive minds, even if the Dolphins’ offense has had to overcome a plethora of injuries. McDaniel’s use of speed and motion combined with the “New West Coast” concepts popularized by Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay makes his offense one of the most challenging to defend...
