Giants GM Joe Schoen wouldn’t advise teams to do offseason ‘Hard Knocks’ if asked
This time last year, NFL Films and HBO’s “Hard Knocks” were embarking on a new venture to take fans behind the scenes of a team preparing for the offseason.
The subject team was, of course, the New York Giants and the revolutionary idea worked well. It was revealing (perhaps too revealing), informative and fresh – and fans ate it up.
The concept may be dead on the vine, however, after the debut season. The Giants are still answering questions about their process a year later and no team has yet to volunteer for the second season.
“We hope it’s back. We’re talking to a bunch of teams about it. But we’ll see what happens. I mean, we need a willing participant on that one. We’re not going to force someone to do that show,” NFL Films VP Cossrow said last month.
No team has come forward because of the maelstrom it created for the Giants. It showed the inner workings of a decision that would eventually change the outcome of the 2025 NFL season and made the Giants look like fools in the process.
You know, the one where the Giants decided to let Saquon Barkley walk in free agency.
On Tuesday at the NFL combine in Indianapolis, the first question hurled at Giants general manager Joe Schoen was about his fateful decision to allow Barkley to defect to Philadelphia and lead them to the Super Bowl. While he’s happy for Barkley, the decision didn’t work out for New York.
Schoen was also asked if any team has called him for advice about doing the show and though no one has, he knows what he would tell them if they sought his opinion.
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The reality is, had the Giants kept Barkley, he wouldn’t have tilted the scales much for them. They won three games last year. With Barkley, they might have won a few more at best. With the Eagles, he became the final piece of a championship puzzle.
The Giants need to have a solid offseason that yields results and produces wins to finally escape this shroud of ineptitude that has been hanging over them since they appeared on “Hard Knocks”.
Joe Schoen jokes about ‘Hard Knocks’ scars as NFL seeks new team to follow Giants’ footsteps
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The NFL has been unable to find another team to do HBO’s ‘Offseason Hard Knocks‘ in 2025 after the brutal exposure of the Giants‘ flawed process one year ago.
Joe Schoen was asked Tuesday if any other GMs had called him to ask about his experience as the league seeks a new club, and the Giants GM had a sense of humor about it.
“No, I haven’t gotten any calls on that,” Schoen said with a laugh. “I think I know what I would tell them.”
Schoen’s son, Carson, famously told his father on the 2024 series that he needed to trade up and draft eventual Washington Commanders offensive rookie of the year Jayden Daniels.
The Giants passed on the remaining quarterbacks at No. 6 overall and went 3-14.
“Jayden Daniels. Trade up and get him, why not?” Schoen’s son told him in the show. “You only get this job once, might as well try to win.”
Carson Schoen is a freshman quarterback at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. So a reporter asked Schoen what he tells his son are the two most important traits for a QB:
“We just had this conversation: completions and winner. I want a winner,” Schoen said with a smile. “I want a guy that can win and complete passes. That’s the most important thing. He likes to throw these go-balls and deep balls all the time. Take the gains. Take the positives. Take completions and win games. That’s what I tell him.”
So that broached the biggest question: since Carson correctly predicted which QB was going to a star last year, which one he does prefer in this year’s NFL Draft class?
“He sent me some clips this morning, it’s funny you said that,” Schoen said. “I’m not gonna tell you.”
Then Schoen noted: his son didn’t arrive at the Daniels conclusion alone.
“And listen: last year, he knows where that came from,” Schoen said with a smirk. “So that wasn’t all his idea.”
SUPER SAQUON
Schoen said he was “happy” for Saquon Barkley, whom he let walk to the rival Eagles and win a Super Bowl in his first season with Philly.
“I’m happy for Saquon,” Schoen said. “He obviously went on to win the Super Bowl. We wish him nothing but the best. Always gonna evaluate all the decisions you make, and we were at a different place in our build. And again, love Saquon and wish him nothing but the best.”
NO THROWING? NO PROBLEM
Schoen said he has no issues with quarterbacks such as Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders deciding not to throw at the combine.
“To me you’ve never thrown to these receivers before,” Schoen said. “If they throw, that’s great. I’m never gonna downgrade them for not throwing. And then if they don’t have a great throwing session, I’m not gonna downgrade them for that, either.
“Because they’ve never thrown to these guys, and it’s timing anticipation, the guys’ abilities to run certain routes,” Schoen added. “So if a guy decides he doesn’t want to throw and wants to throw at his pro day, I’m OK with that. We’ve seen all of these guys throw whether it’s practices, games. I’m OK with that.”
DABOLL QUIET UNTIL OWNERS
Head coach Brian Daboll does not speak at the NFL Combine, which stands out league-wide.
Daboll is one of only five of 32 head coaches who had no plan to talk to the media in any way this week. And he is one of only three of 32 head coaches who is here in Indianapolis but still not doing an interview.
Schoen was asked if the Giants are changing offensive play-callers, as co-owner John Mara said he would prefer.
“You guys can ask [Daboll] that at the owners’ meetings,” Schoen said. “That’s something him and I have not discussed over the last couple of weeks, and ultimately that’s gonna be his decision.”
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Joe Schoen Drops Hard Knocks Joke at Combine
Just about everything went wrong for the New York Giants in 2024, but the sky started falling well before a Week 1 blowout loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
In March, general manager Joe Schoen defined the Giants’ offseason by letting running back Saquon Barkley walk in free agency. Hours into the free-for-all, he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for three years and $37.75 million, sending the fanbase into a frenzy.
It was bad enough that the face of the franchise left for the team’s biggest rival. But in the summer, Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants aired and showed the world just how negotiations went down, and how content Schoen was to let him hit the open market.
In the year that followed, Barkley had one of the most impressive seasons in league history, posting 2,005 yards in the regular season on his way to the single season (including playoffs) rushing record and a Super Bowl victory.
The Hard Knocks clips went viral all season, submerging Schoen with nearly unprecedented embarrassment for an NFL decision-maker. It’s gotten to a point where no team is expected to willingly do the offseason version of the show.
On Tuesday, Schoen was asked about the ordeal, and the Giants general manager was able to make a Hard Knocks joke at the NFL Scouting Combine.
“I think I know what I would tell them,” Schoen joked when asked if other teams had reached out about doing the show.
Fair or not, Schoen has egg on his face. But in a world where Barkley doesn’t have an 99th-percentile outcome – or didn’t sign with the Eagles – he’d probably look more like a forward-thinking general manager with a keen sense of positional value.
“I’m happy for Saquon, obviously he went on to win the Super Bowl and we wish him nothing but the best. We were at a different place in our build,” Schoen said.
Philadelphia was able to make the cap hit even more manageable than his (approximately) $12.5 million average annual value. But New York found rookie running back Tyrone Tracy in Round 5, and he exceeded expectations in his own right, amassing over 1,000 yards from scrimmage.
Schoen wanted to get younger and cheaper at running back while maintaining big-play upside. He accomplished that goal, even if the football world will remember him as the biggest loser of the free agent cycle.
This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.
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