Big Blue View
With the Miami Dolphins’ firing of head coach Mike McDaniel, the John Harbaugh sweepstakes just got more interesting, as Ed discussed Thursday. The New York Giants and the Dolphins are only two of eight teams searching for a head coach this coming off-season, but as Ed reported, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has long ties to the Harbaugh family and apparently had been in touch with Harbaugh even before firing McDaniel. That makes Miami probably the most serious competitor for Harbaugh’s services.
Let’s put aside those things and imagine that we’re John Harbaugh, and ask a simple question that Harbaugh may have to ask himself: Personal relationships aside, which is the better job if you’re interested in success? Let’s go through the pros and cons.
Ross has some baggage. Most notably, the Dolphins lost their first-round draft pick in 2023 and their third round draft pick in 2024 because the NFL determined that Ross had illegal contact with Tom Brady and Sean Payton while they were employed by other teams, and that he had tried to get former head coach Brian Flores to tank during the 2019 season to improve Miami’s chances of getting the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft.
Ross is an absentee owner who does not live in the Miami area, which can be a pro or con depending on what you think of the owner. The players seem to like him, having given him an A+ in the 2025 NFLPA Report Card (the Giants’ owners got a C+). Per Nick Korte, the Dolphins were seventh in the league in void year contract spending as of last winter, so Ross is not afraid to spend his money on improving the team.
On the other hand, it’s possible that Miami was the eighth team that was inquiring about Harbaugh the other day when there were only seven teams known to be seeking a new head coach; they then fired Mike McDaniel on Thursday. Would that make an in-demand candidate think twice?
Giants ownership is different in many ways. It’s partly a family-run business, and the only business of one of the two primary owners, who is always around the facility and has numerous family members working in positions of influence in the front office. The Giants players gave ownership a C+ in the 2025 NFLPA voting. The Giants are one of two NFL teams with absolutely no void year costs on the books. GM Joe Schoen made no moves at the trading deadline to shore up any of the Giants’ weaknesses. Would that make Harbaugh suspicious that ownership is willing to do whatever it takes to win?
Edge: Dolphins
You know how this is going to turn out, right? The Giants have mostly been a disaster since winning their last Super Bowl in the 2011 season. Only two playoff seasons and one playoff win during that time. Six head coaches (plus two interim head coaches) during that time. An overall record...
