Giants Nation Show (Giants Podcast)
John Harbaugh Sweepstakes + Giants 2025 Awards | 114
09 Jan 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the latest on the Giants' head coach search?
And she said, I wonder how on earth that country bumpkin found his way to town. And I said, hello country bumpkin. How's the frost out on the pumpkin? I've seen some sights and then you're something. Welcome to Giants Nation.
I'm your host, Bobby Skinner, here with my co-host, the football grump. And we've got... The 2025 season awards. We got most outstanding on both offense, defense, most improved, most underwhelming, which we're going to have a conversation about that rookie of the year and most underrated.
But there's crazy head coaching buzz since the last time that we did a formal episode when the Giants decided to retain Joe Shane. We will give you a full head coach candidate preview, even though, Grump, I think we might have to turn that into a two-parter because right now, look, this is the list of of names that we've got. These are just interviews.
Kevin Stefanski, Mike McCarthy, Raheem Morris, Antonio Pierce, Mike Kafka, Clint Kubiak, Cliff Kingsbury, Vance Joseph, Lou Anarumo, Darren Rizzi. That doesn't include John Harbaugh. That doesn't include any of the wildcard round coaches that aren't able to be interviewed this week. We joked, people said, they're going to cast a wide net, but it's not going to be like the Jets, 15, 20 names.
I think we're going to hit 15 names on this.
You know, maybe.
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Chapter 2: Who won the Offensive Most Outstanding award for 2025?
I don't know if there's going to be any. It's hard to imagine any other names. The two that are the two glaring ones. Krishula, Jesse Minner. Oh, Jesse Minner.
Chapter 3: What factors contributed to the Defensive Most Outstanding award winner?
Yeah. And I was going to say Jeff Halfley. Those are kind of the names. Darren Rizzi is a bit of a surprise. There are some surprise names in here. Yeah. Yeah, it's a wide net for sure, and it covers everything. There's special teams guys there.
Chapter 4: Who is considered the Most Underrated player on the Giants?
There's ex-head coaches, ex-interims, offense, defense. It's all over the place. Yeah, which I will say this.
I've only seen Jordan Schultz report Cliff Kingsbury and only Albert Breer, Clint Kubiak. Not to say that I don't trust those guys, but it is weird that Schefter and Rappaport haven't confirmed those ones. So... You know, we'll see with that. But the big news, Grump, let's not bury the lead. John Harbaugh.
John Harbaugh fired by the Baltimore Ravens, sent everybody into a frenzy because now he becomes the most desired head coach. We talked about the last two months, Grump, about the Giants feel like they're looking for this guy that doesn't exist, a great experience, leadership, CEO.
Chapter 5: Which player was recognized as the Most Improved for the Giants?
I'm like, well, those guys are either head coaches or aren't available to be head coaches without having, you know, they don't have experience. But it's like those guys come around every once in a while where you get the right scenario. Well, that's what you got. The Ravens missing the playoffs on a missed field goal.
That ended up being the right scenario for the New York Giants to have an opportunity guy. And I think he goes to the top of everybody's list. Like he's the top of mind. You know, there's other guys I think could be bigger swings than him. But like I'm all in on John Harbaugh. It's just a question of who is he all in on because it feels like he gets to pick whatever team he wants to go to.
Yeah, I agree completely.
Chapter 6: Who took home the Rookie of the Year award for 2025?
There are definitely other guys that I'm interested in. There's guys that are bigger swings or could be a better match. But I think John Harbaugh is the perfect match of safe and... Safe, but also not conservative. You know what I mean? This is sort of a...
A big move.
Chapter 7: What are the implications of John Harbaugh's coaching status?
Kevin Stefanski or Mike McCarthy is safe and conservative. John Harbaugh is not. John Harbaugh is swinging for a guy who has proven to win over and over and over again with different styles. We're going to do a full preview on them, like I said, next week. I don't want to get too much. I just want to talk more about the situation. But, like... I'm in on Harbaugh.
I think a lot of people are as well, too. You know, I tweeted two months ago when they fired Dave. I was like, yeah, I haven't done any research yet. But, like, the second name on my list was, like, John Harbaugh. Please fire him, Ravens. And that was two months ago. They end up doing it.
It really... I don't pay attention to rumors with this stuff too much right now until things start getting finalized. One, John Harbaugh has not interviewed with any team. He's not interviewing until next week. But... The sentiment out there is, like, it's the Giants or the Dolphins. Right?
You know, people will be like, ah, you know, before Mike McDaniel was fired, it felt like, ah, Giants or Florida. Giants or Florida, right? And then the Bucs decide they're going to keep Todd Bowles. And, you know, then, you know, that was the day after the Harbaugh thing. Like, ah, Bucs are staying with Todd Bowles. And then the next day...
All of a sudden, Mike McDaniel was fired the Thursday after the season. And that goes with the Dolphins had a group of GMs they were interviewing. And then all of a sudden, Chad Alexander, the Chargers assistant GM who had worked for the Ravens for 20 years, gets added to that GM list. It really does feel like the Giants or Dolphins in this moment. I put heavy emphasis on the word feel. Yeah.
And I think the Giants are desirable, but I also think people are discounting Miami a little bit. And we were getting into this a little bit before the show, Grump. But I don't know. It just feels like Giants or Dolphins.
I think that both organizations have their positives and negatives. I think that from a roster standpoint, Miami is a worse spot, but perhaps it's a cleaner slate to start from, right? You have no GM there. This is a true rebuild. John Harbaugh can really put his imprint and his identity on it, whereas with the New York Giants, I think that the roster spot is a lot worse
further ahead than where the Dolphins are, but you obviously have the specter of Joe Shane's shadow over everything. Yeah, but I mean, that's a big thing. The quarterback on a rookie deal, whereas you have two on a huge contract. That's a big deal. Tyreek Hill is unhappy there.
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Chapter 8: What are the final thoughts on the Giants' 2025 season awards?
It feels a little bit more like a mess in Miami from a roster standpoint, whereas the Giants feels like it was a mess and it's starting to be assembled into a sandcastle or something.
Yeah, well, it's like the Dolphins are a mess. That's the fact. And we're going to go through, you know, I want to talk about why Miami could be appealing for John Harbaugh and not necessarily like, oh, well, look at this, look at that.
Why it could be more appealing than I think people are giving credit because right now they have a Tua contract problem and, like you said, a roster mess with a cap problem as well, too. Yeah. But with the Giants, like you said, having Jackson Dart is that key thing where it's like, all right, man, that's the guy that a quarterback or, you know, a coach wants to jump in.
But here's where I think Miami can be a little favorable for Harbaugh. And again, Harbaugh's different, right? If we were just talking about...
cliff kingsbury or clint kubiak or kevin stefanski picking between the giants and the dolphins guys who might not get the same runway as john harbaugh i think it's a different scenario john harbaugh is getting control and he's getting a long long runway to basically take over the franchise when he's there all right so he doesn't have to worry about things not getting turned around quickly and being fired in two years like that's not a reality with john harbaugh i don't believe um
But one, location, family, money. That's where Miami gets the edge for John Harbaugh. Run the team things. They don't have a GM who's been there for four years. They just fired their guy, and their guy got a long runway. He got 10 years. It's Chris Greer, right? I'm getting the name right. Chris Greer had 10 years with not a single playoff victory to be the general manager.
So you're getting patience anyways, and Harbaugh is just inherently getting patience. A fairly slow trigger to fire coaches there. Not to say that they've had anybody there, but they haven't fired anyone after two years. Really, the quickest trigger was Brian Flores, and that was much beyond just on-field results. That was a mess from both sides, and that's where the Dolphins could be an issue.
But there's two things that I think people look at and say, well, why would he pick the Dolphins? Number one, saying their cap is a mess. and specifically with Tua. But if they cut Tua and Bradley Chubb in 2027, they'll have $127 million in cap space that year. So they're not going to have a bunch of money to work on this year, but they will a year from now. They'll have money to operate.
And the other thing being, well, the Giants have Jackson Dart. The Dolphins don't have a quarterback. That could be the intriguing thing for a guy who ā Has an ego and wants to build something from the ground up and have it be his. Is that ability to possibly go out and get his quarterback in the next two years?
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