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Counterpoint: If John Harbaugh Couldn’t Get Back to the Super Bowl with Those Baltimore Teams, What’s He Really Gonna Do with the Giants?
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Consensus around the NFL seems to be that John Harbaugh is a slam dunk hire for the New York Giants. You’re talking about a guy who has been coaching since 1984 and spent the last 18 seasons in Baltimore, where we won a Super Bowl and finished above .500 on 15 occasions. He only had three losing records along the way and went to three AFC Championship Games outside of the 2012 title-winning season.
There is, however, a little bit of this going around:
Funny, but is there something to the “overrated” chatter?
Mike Tomlin famously had not won a playoff game in nine seasons when he stepped down as Steelers head coach. He was 0-6 in the postseason after the 2017 AFC Championship Game and Pittsburgh never found a franchise quarterback after Big Ben Roethlisberger retired. That Super Bowl win against the Cardinals was a long time ago, way back in 2008, a few weeks after Obama took office for his first term.
Harbaugh’s playoff record since his Super Bowl victory is 4-7, with two losses in the Wild Card round, four in the divisional round, and a loss in the 2024 AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs. It was an ugly one, with three turnovers for the Ravens to go along with 95 penalty yards and a lot of punting. They put up 10 points against the KC team that went on to beat the Niners in overtime in Super Bowl 58.
Other Baltimore playoff exits came at the hands of the Bills, Bengals, and Titans, typically close games but disappointing for a team that finished with 10 wins. The Tennessee home loss was the biggest bust, when a 14-2 Ravens team got worked by Derrick Henry and even Ryan Tannehill while coughing the ball up left and right. Say what you will about Lamar Jackson’s performances in these games, but Harbaugh is running the show, and his later Baltimore teams never replicated their regular-season success in the playoffs. They never played their best football when it mattered most.
For context, the Giants’ bar is really low. Just hiring a competent coach is a big deal for them. Harbaugh is a veteran and will build a legitimate staff and culture and all of those things. But there are New York fans and writers that seem to think this has closed the door on the Eagles, Commanders, and Cowboys, who are now going to roll over and die and swear fealty to the almighty G Men. In truth, if the Giants doubled their win total from this past season, they’d still have a losing record in 2026. So they have a long way to go.
It’s a good hire on paper, assuming they get it to the finish line, but if Harbaugh couldn’t get back to the Super Bowl with 13 years of those talented Ravens teams, what’s the guarantee that he does anything with this Giants team?
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com