The New York Giants are ushering in a new era under John Harbaugh, which they're hoping will end their years of consistent inconsistency. He's their third new coach in the 2020s alone, and given his similarities to Tom Coughlin, fans are hoping he'll encounter the same success as him with the Giants.
The head coaching position has been a sore spot for Big Blue since Coughlin retired, but their luck could finally be turning around. ESPN's Keith Jenkins released an article detailing the teams with the most head coaching turnover since 2002, and surprisingly, the Giants are in the middle of the pack.
Per Jenkins, not including interim coaches, Harbaugh will be the team's seventh different head coach, tying them with seven other teams. And we all know that seven is a lucky number, so even though they've been just as unlucky in their search as Carrie Bradshaw in her search for love, fans are hoping that the Giants' luck will turn around now that they finally have a competent coaching staff.
John Harbaugh will end up being the head coach to turn the Giants' luck around
The head coaches the Giants have had this century:
- Mike Fassel
- Tom Coughlin
- Ben McAdoo
- Pat Shurmur
- Joe Judge
- Brian Daboll
We all know the story. McAdoo, Shurmur, Judge, and Daboll are the Four Horsemen of recent coaches all Giants fans would like to forget. Dabes was the only guy of these four to last more than two seasons at the helm, so Harbaugh can bring some much-needed continuity to New York.
McAdoo was haunted by the boat trip and breaking Eli Manning's start streak, Shurmur (who I still believe was fired too soon) lost the locker room way quicker than expected, and Judge's Giants consistently looked defeated. I hope the pattern of lack of preparedness doesn't continue with Harbs.
They had guys like Bill Parcells and Dan Reeves in the 80s and 90s, and those days feel like a distant memory. That's when the Giants were actually respected as a franchise for their consistent playoff appearances. Nowadays, one playoff appearance excites the fanbase, which is genuinely pathetic.
Even if they're not Raiders-level unlucky, the Giants are one of the unluckiest teams in football on the head coaching front. They've been chasing their tail trying to find their new Coughlin, and just like the 2025 Yankees, they've struck out more often than not. And fans are growing restless about the cycle.
The Giants haven't exactly been a model of head coaching stability, but that's exactly why they hired the Super Bowl-winning head coach in the first place: for his help in rewriting the narrative surrounding one of the NFL's most illustrious franchises, which has been in a never-ending dry spell.