Giants Nation Show (Giants Podcast)
John Harbaugh Arrives + Chris Mara Steps Up | Breaking Big Blue w/ Jordan Raanan
22 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What changes are happening in the Giants organization with John Harbaugh's arrival?
Welcome everyone to Breaking Big Blue. I'm your host Jordan Ron on ESPN, ESPN.com. Giants reporter Breaking Big Blue time Giants Nation show collaboration live here on a Thursday morning. Holy cow, lots going on in Giant land at the moment. We'll get Bobby in here in a few minutes. Let's just give a rundown of some of the things that happened.
Let's just say in the last, you know, came out in the last 12 or so hours, changes in the organization, defensive staff basically was blown out. Michael Gobriel, the special teams coach, he's not returning. The only one really on the defensive staff that seems to have any chance of returning is Charlie Bullen. But even that doesn't seem overly likely at this point.
Chapter 2: How will Ronnie Barnes' role change under John Harbaugh?
Michael Gobriel, the special teams coordinator, he is not being retained as well. Giant special teams are actually better.
Chapter 3: What is the impact of Kevin Abrams' departure on the Giants' front office?
this year than they had been the previous year. So did a decent job there. But he's out as well.
Chapter 4: What does John Harbaugh's shakeup mean for the coaching staff?
John Harbaugh going to bring in his own guys all over the place. So Harbaugh is introduced. And here's the big one that's come out so far. Ronnie Barnes is going to be in a different role, right? He's been the head athletic trainer since 1980. He's going to kind of oversee the department. now and they're going to bring in somebody who has been worded to me under ronnie barnes but
I don't know what exactly that means and how that's going to play out. But you can see the changes in the fingerprints that John Harbaugh is putting in on this organization. And it's going to come in every department. I mentioned this throughout the negotiations as they were trying to finalize the deal afterwards, beforehand.
Chapter 5: How is Chris Mara stepping up as a key figure in the Giants organization?
There's going to be major changes in this organization. And this is basically what John Harbaugh wanted to make sure that he... Sorry. He wanted to make sure that he was able to make the moves that he was going to make. So... That's my interpretation of how everything's going. Ronnie Barnes' title isn't actually changing. They're just bringing in other people under him.
So we could all figure, you know, take guesses at how that's actually going to play out and work out.
Chapter 6: What does Joe Schoen's future look like with the new coaching staff?
But we'll see how that goes. So with that being said, there's still a lot more to break down, including the introductory press conference. And by the way, let me just say this. It's a significant move in that Ronnie Barnes is,
basically family to the Maris okay he sat with John Mara not John Mara he sat with Wellington Mara at his bedside before he he passed he's super close with the family he he's been part of this organization forever so any changes to that department are notable any changes with Ronnie are notable now
Chapter 7: What are the potential candidates for the Giants' offensive and defensive coordinator positions?
They're not getting rid of him.
Chapter 8: What questions do fans have about the Giants' direction and upcoming changes?
They're not blowing him out of the building. But we'll see how much his role changes moving forward. We don't really know that answer yet. But the fact that anything is happening there is certainly notable. Bam! That's where we stand on that. I mentioned Michael Gobriel. He's not being retained.
The Giants actually requested, by the way, I heard they requested somewhere in the range of $20 million. putting 20 slips for people in the Ravens organization. So we're going to see a huge influx of people coming over. One that was actually denied. I think the defense and special teams at this point are kind of at a standstill in Baltimore. Because remember, Baltimore is also ā
in the middle of a coaching search. And with Baltimore's coaching search, if they bring in somebody who has the Ravens' defensive ties, they might want to keep some or a bunch of their defensive guys as well. So that remains in flux. But Chris Horton, who's the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, he was a guy the Giants requested that they were actually, I heard, denied.
I heard they're still trying to get him. We'll see how that plays out. Obviously, it depends on who the next coach is, what they decide to do there, but he's obviously under contract. There'll be a little bit of a pull and tug in regards to some of the pieces, but already at the press conference, I met Harbaugh's assistant. She came over with him. Megan was her name.
She was at the introductory press conference. So we will see. I was just reading one of these questions here. We will see how that plays out with Chris Horton and some of these Ravens coaches. But there's clearly going to be a massive Ravens.
imprint on the Giants organization so we'll see what happens there one of the things that I was told let's see defensive coordinator let's go to let's go to the coordinators for a second Todd Munkin, clearly the favorite for the offensive coordinator job for the Giants. Be stunned if he didn't get it, as long as he doesn't get a head coaching job. He's still in the hunt for the Browns job.
I believe he's a finalist there, so that is contingent on that. Defensive coordinator, Anthony Weaver. That's a name I keep hearing. Denard Wilson is a name I've heard, and Jim Leonard as well. So we'll see how that plays out. Anthony Weaver, also a name that's up for several head coaches. I believe in Baltimore. I believe in Pittsburgh. I believe in Arizona.
So we'll see what happens there before something happens in regards to the head coach. Someone's saying he heard that Todd Munkin is out in the running game. in regards to the Browns head coach position. Bobby, have you heard anything like that officially? No. Yeah, me neither. So I don't know if that's real yet. We'll just see how it plays out, the whole coaching search.
So those are named ā oh, so Zach Orr, a name I've heard, but I heard it's not likely ā That he's going to be the defensive coordinator, but he is likely that people around the league thinks it's likely that he does still land on the Giants staff. He was the previous defensive coordinator in Baltimore. You hear Ravens fans and.
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