February 15, 2026
Julian Leshay Guadalupe/Imagn Images
Neutered Giants GM Joe Schoen, and new head coach John Harbaugh.
The Philadelphia Eagles weren't the only NFC East team to have significant changes to their coaching staff this offseason. The New York Giants, Washington Commanders, and Dallas Cowboys all made substantial moves as well. Let's look at what each of them did.
• New head coach: John Harbaugh: The Giants' initial head coaching search was looking bleak, until the Baltimore Ravens surprised the NFL world by firing Harbaugh late in the process. The Giants moved quickly, and after a little bit of a power struggle (we'll get to that in a moment), were able to lock him down.
Harbaugh is 63 years of age, the second-oldest head coach in the NFL, behind only Andy Reid (67). In 18 seasons as a the Ravens' head coach, Harbaugh had an impressive career regular season record of 180-113 (0.614). During his Ravens tenure, Harbaugh only had three losing seasons, one of which was in 2025, when the Ravens went 8-9 during a season in which the rest of the AFC was relatively weak.
Harbaugh also had a winning record in the playoffs in Baltimore. He was 13-11 (0.542), a record that was powered by the Ravens' 4-0 Super Bowl run during the 2012 season, Harbaugh's lone championship season. However, since that Super Bowl, despite usually having a contending roster, Harbaugh somehow only won four playoff games in 13 seasons, and never more than one in a season. He was 4-7 in playoff games during that span. There have been 14 teams since 2013 that have won at least that many, and 12 that have won more:
That's almost half the league.
Harbaugh's hiring also came with a bit of a power struggle. Typically, Giants head coaches have reported to the team's GM. Harbaugh, however, was able to negotiate a deal that allows him to report directly to ownership, and not to GM Joe Schoen. And, well, who can blame him, as Schoen's four-year tenure with the Giants has resulted in a cumulative record of 22-45-1 (0.331), a cumulative point differential of -347, and an extremely embarrassing season of Hard Knocks.
My perception is that Giants fans are generally happy that Harbaugh will have a louder voice on personnel decisions than Schoen, which is understandable, since Schoen is pretty clearly in over his head as a GM. And short-term, sure, that's fine and good, but there could be long-term issues, as future GM candidates could be turned off by a setup in which they have to defer to the head coach.
Ultimately, Harbaugh will bring a base competency to the Giants that they did not have with their last three atrocious hires in Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, and Brian Daboll. That's bad news for the rest of the NFC East. The Giants will likely win more games than we are used to seeing. But also, in a weird way, this feels a lot like a hire geared toward just that -- "base competency." And certainly, I can understand the Giants' impulse to raise their floor after a decade of awful football. But I also believe that this older iteration of Harbaugh has a limited ceiling, given his teams' shortcomings in their most meaningful games over the last decade.
• New offensive coordinator: Matt Nagy: Harbaugh seemed poised to bring his Baltimore offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, along with him to New Jersey, but Monken instead landed a head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns. Instead they settled on Nagy. Here's what our Geoff Mosher said when Nagy interviewed for the Eagles' offensive coordinator job:
Nagy has spent the past three seasons coaching Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs' offense in his second stint as Chiefs OC under Reid and was recently a finalist for the Titans head coaching job that went to Robert Saleh, but he strangely appears to have been soft-fired by Reid, who is reportedly planning to bring back Eric Bieniemy as his next offensive coordinator while Nagy's contract with the Chiefs is set to expire.
Reid is the primary play caller, but the Chiefs have seen their offense gradually regress, going from ninth overall in 2023 – Nagy's first year back at OC after a four-year stint as Bears head coach – to 15th in 2024 and 20th this past season, as the Chiefs went 6-11 and missed the postseason for the first time since 2014.
In Chicago, Nagy called plays his first two years as head coach, then surrendered play calling to OC Bill Lazor late in the 2020 season, then reclaimed play calling in 2021 before giving it back again. In his four years in Chicago, the Bears never ranked higher than 21st in total offense and finished as low as 29th.
Nagy was named the NFL's Coach of the Year after guiding the Bears to a 12-4 season but lost at home in the first round to the Nick Foles-led Eagles in the infamous "Double Doink Game" that ended with Bears kicker Cody Parkey missing a 43-yard field goal that bounced off the left upright and then crossbar before falling away with 10 seconds to play, helping the Eagles escape with a 16-15 win.
Nagy's Bears went 8-8 in each of the next two seasons before moving on from quarterback Mitchell Trubisky to first-round pick Justin Fields and going 6-11 in his fourth season, leading to his firing.
Nagy is not an inspired hiring, in my opinion, but at least the Giants surrounded him with three other assistants with previous offensive coordinator experience:
• New defensive coordinator: Dennard Wilson: Wilson worked for Harbaugh as the Ravens' defensive backs coach in 2023, before landing a defensive coordinator job with the Titans (2024-2025). The Titans finished 30th in points allowed and 20th in yards allowed in 2024. They finished 31st in both points and yards allowed in 2025. Obviously, the Titans do not have a ton of talent, but... 😬.
MORE: Will Jalen Hurts be the Eagles' starting QB in 2027?
• New offensive coordinator: David Blough: This offseason, five teams hired offensive coordinators who are 33 years of age or younger. Blough was one of them:
| Team | OC (age) | Previous job |
| Ravens | Declan Doyle (29) | Offensive coordinator (Bears) |
| Commanders | David Blough (30) | Assistant QB coach (Commanders) |
| Broncos | Davis Webb (31) | QB coach / passing game coordinator (Broncos) |
| Eagles | Sean Mannion (33) | QB coach (Packers) |
| Falcons | Tommy Rees (33) | Offensive coordinator (Browns) |
Interestingly, Blough is not only making a major jump from assistant quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator, but he's also doing it on a team that has a defensive-minded head coach. It'll be his offense. He'll be installing a new scheme, calling plays, and trying to revive a talented third-year quarterback in Jayden Daniels, who is coming off a nightmare season, and was reportedly "disappointed" with the firing of Kliff Kingsbury. That is a lot of responsibility for an untested coach, and a huge gamble by Dan Quinn and the Commanders.
• New defensive coordinator: Daronte Jones: The Commanders' defense was atrocious in 2025, so it was no surprise that the team fired former defensive coordinator Joe Whitt, even if the defense is ultimately Quinn's responsibility. Jones has defensive coordinator experience in college (LSU), and he was the defensive backs coach in Minnesota under Brian Flores. I believe this will be an upgrade.
• New defensive coordinator Christian Parker: During his last five seasons as a defensive backs coach for the Broncos and Eagles, Parker has helped players like Patrick Surtain, Quinyon Mitchell, and Cooper DeJean realize their full potential and blossom into All-Pros. He parlayed his success into a defensive coordinator job with the Cowboys.
Coordinating a defense is a different kind of job, so we'll see how well he does in that role, but what feels fairly certain is that this is a significant loss for the Eagles. The bar for improvement isn't high in Dallas. They finished 30th in yards allowed and dead last in points allowed in 2025.
MORE: Should the Eagles exercise fifth-year options for Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith?
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