Simpatico between the NFL head coach and his general manager is almost as critical to a team’s success as that team having a competent, if top-level, quarterback.
We live in a New York football era at the moment where both the Giants and Jets have harmony and philosophical symmetry between their respective head coach and general manager.
For the Giants, general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll came in together, with Schoen hired from the Bills and then Schoen hiring Daboll away from Buffalo.
Those two are in a complete dovetail mode, having arrived together and likely with their respective fates in each other’s hands.
The Jets situation is different, mostly in timetable only, with general manager Joe Douglas hired in 2019 and Douglas a part of the hiring of head coach Robert Saleh before the 2021 season.
The two constantly speak so highly of each other and with such respect, you would think they arrived together.
It hasn’t always been that way for both teams, with examples of head coach/GM relationships having reached toxic stages. And for both, you don’t have to reach that far back in history to find the examples.
Those inside the Jets building will remember the days of former head coach Rex Ryan and GM John Idzik not even acknowledging each other’s presence while walking past each other in the hallway.
Giants fans, before Schoen was hired, have memories of things going south in the final years of Jerry Reese and then the Dave Gettleman era that lacked accountability from the GM’s office as well as results on the field.
Those days are thankfully gone and, as both teams begin the 2023 season this week, they’re both counting on their respective coach/GM tandems to be together for a long time.
In conversations with both Schoen and Daboll as well as Douglas and Saleh leading into this weekend of off days for the teams before it gets real this coming week, there was a common denominator for all four men: Lack of ego.
“Daboll and I — and everybody in here — checks their ego at the door and we’re going to do what’s best for the New York Giants,’’ Schoen told The Post. “All Dabes and I want to do is win. So, it’s not about me being right or him being right, it’s about getting it right for the organization. And at the end of the day, that’s all we care about. We want to win.”
So, too, do Douglas and Saleh — particularly in the all-in, win-now mode they’re in with the Aaron Rodgers offseason acquisition.
Saleh and Daboll seem to be attracted to the same traits each of their GMs possess in that both are humble.
“Joe checks his ego at the door,” Saleh told The Post. “He does such a great job of listening to people and taking in input. He’s very genuine in the way he listens to his staff, he takes input from the coaching staff. He does a really good job facilitating that communication and collaboration that I think are important to building a good roster.
“When you’ve got that level of collaboration and communication, there’s an organizational understanding of what’s being asked out of players and what we’re looking for out of players. Then we can all get to a point where we narrow down who we want, and if we’re all on same page of wanting a guy, odds are you’re going to be right.”
There’s a commonality between Daboll and Schoen in their respective paths to their current jobs.
Both had done everything but wash dishes and do laundry in several other organizations before they finally got their first shot at the big jobs.
Schoen, 44, broke into the NFL in 2001 as a scouting assistant with the Panthers, then was a national scout for Miami, where he first met Daboll, who was the Dolphins offensive coordinator in 2011. Schoen then became the assistant director of college scouting with Miami before he was hired as the assistant GM with the Bills.
Daboll, 48, has seen and done everything in the league, some really good and some very bad. His first NFL season was in 2000, when he worked for the Patriots as a defensive assistant. He has worked for six NFL teams and at Alabama before the Giants hired him.
“I have a great amount of respect for Joe and how he’s come up in the business,” Daboll said. “It took him a long time to assume this role. So, I think he’s got a firm understanding of the business and he appreciates everybody’s role within an organization, as do I.”
Daboll cannot have scripted a better situation than the one he’s in now, working for the class of the Mara family and being teamed with Schoen.
“I think we’ve both got a great appreciation for the opportunity we have,” Daboll said. “The communication between myself and Joe, you talk about so many different things every day, there has to be a high level of trust and respect between both parties.”
The relationship and respect between Douglas and Saleh seems similarly healthy.
“The relationship that I have been able to build with Robert, it’s been fun,” Douglas said. “His energy is infectious, how thoughtful he is, how communicative he is as a leader, it’s been great to be around. Having not worked together prior to here, we can bounce different ideas and philosophies and things that we have been around and come together to do what is best for the New York Jets.”
Disagreements?
Of course, there are some, even among the most tightly aligned, as these men are. But there are no separate agendas.
“Something that I was taught at a young age is it’s not about being right, it’s getting it right,” Schoen said. “It’s not about what you think and you’ve proven your opinion. As long as everybody’s able to do that, I think it’ll lead you to good decisions.”