At his introductory press conference a little more than a week ago, New York Giants coach John Harbaugh talked about the need to evolve to remain successful in the coaching business.
“I think I’ve evolved as a coach the way you better evolve as a coach if you want to survive because you have no chance if you don’t,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, look at all the coaches coming into the league. Look at all the players. Everything changes all the time. We talk to our coaches all the time from a scheme standpoint,
development standpoint, whatever it might be, that we have to keep it moving. As soon as you start getting comfortable with some scheme or some way you’re playing something or some play the way it’s being run, you’re going to get overtaken like quickly because everybody studies you. You put a big offense out there, you gain 7,000 yards, it’s never been done before. Everybody watches every one of your plays all spring and tries to find a way to stop you. So you better be coming up with the next iteration of what you’re going to do.
“Constant evolution is a requirement just to survive. Isn’t evolution and survival like you’ve got to evolve to survive? It just hit me. It’s pretty good, right?”
Has Harbaugh actually been evolving?
That is a subject of debate in Baltimore, where some believe Harbaugh had become set in his ways. Also, perhaps too reliant on long-term relationships. Harbaugh was fired after 18 seasons with the Ravens following an 8-9 season in which Baltimore missed the playoffs. It was just the third losing season of his tenure in Baltimore.
“One of the things that was really frustrating was it just felt like John Harbaugh was ready to go down with the ship and he didn’t care,” Kevin Oestreicher of Locked on Ravens and Ravens Wire told the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast. “The Harbaugh family is a very relationship-oriented family, where the saying in Baltimore for a while was if you know a Harbaugh you have a job for life because there’s always going to be an opportunity.”
There is a thought among some in Baltimore that toward the end of his Ravens tenure Harbaugh was not as quick or as willing to address problems as he could or should have been.
One of those issues was the offensive line, where Pro Football Focus ranked Baltimore 16th.
“He got up there on the podium every week after with everybody’s own eyes, with all the stats, all the advanced analytics, the offensive line was terrible,” Oestreicher said. “John Harbaugh went up there every week and said ‘No, I think they’re playing good.‘
“It just wasn’t true.”
Was that because Harbaugh saw or knew things the media and the fan base did not? Or, because his loyalty to the coaches and players involved did not let him recognize a problem?
Building Ravens North
Harbaugh has been busy filling out his Giants’ coaching staff. Most of that, to this point, has predictably been former Ravens coaches who are moving north to join him in New Jersey.
That’s understandable. Harbaugh knows and respects these coaches. He has had consistent success with them, even if that did not lead to championships. He wants to hit the ground running as quickly as he can, and having to learn an entire new staff and get them accustomed to what he wants done and how he wants it done could slow that process.
Is consistently turning to who and what you are comfortable with, though, showing the ability and willingness to evolve?
Here is more from Harbaugh about evolving while staying true to core beliefs.
“There are principles, right, and the principles of the vision you’re talking about, that’s that word, are written in stone, and they’re football principles. They’re self-evident truths. They aren’t ever going to change. Those are things you carry with you through 18 years or 42 years or whatever it is. You carry those principles with you. You learn what they are, and they’re just non-compromised. They can’t be. They have to happen,” Harbaugh said. “The methods? Those things are like drawn in the dirt. You’re drawing up a play, come on, guys, here’s what we’re going to do, you draw it in the dirt. You’ve got to keep those things moving, play calls, defensive schemes, blitz patterns, how you lift weights, how you train, whatever, how you practice. Practices have changed a lot, haven’t they over the years? They’ve changed a ton. So, all those things are all going to change as we go. So, those things in 18 years and 40 some years, they’ve all evolved and changed and grown, and they will continue to change every single day.
“Understand those two things, principles and methods, you’re going to try to merge them the best you can to try to win the next game, keep it simple, try to win the next game, and that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Which brings us to offensive coordinator.
It is well-known that Harbaugh was planning to bring Todd Monken, his offensive coordinator the past three season in Baltimore, to New York. Until, that is, the Cleveland Browns named Monken their head coach.
There have been reports that the Giants and Monken had even discussed contract parameters before Monken accepted the top job in Cleveland.
Monken would likely have done an excellent job with Jaxson Dart and the Giants’ offense. But, it wasn’t to be.
What now for Harbaugh and the Giants’ offense?
Harbaugh could stay inside his circle, perhaps by convincing Ravens’ quarterbacks coach Tee Martin to come to New York to run the offense and work with Dart.
Or, Harbaugh could take this as an opportunity to evolve, to hear different ideas and perspectives, to grow by going outside his bubble. He could hire someone like Davis Webb, Nate Scheelhaase, Charlie Weis Jr., or even a former NFL head coach like Kliff Kingsbury.
How this plays out is going to be fascinating, and might provide a window into Harbaugh’s willingness to step outside his comfort zone.
