The Giants promised a thorough process to find their next general manager and they are delivering on that, as far as requesting and undertaking extensive interviews with some of the most highly regarded young NFL executives in the league. To that end, they will bring in Adam Peters of the 49ers on Thursday for an in-person interview.
On Wednesday, the Giants spent hours with Ryan Poles of the Chiefs. The second round of interviews kicked off Tuesday with Joe Schoen of the Bills. It is certainly possible the meeting with Peters will end the interview process and the Giants come to a decision on their new general manager by Friday. They need to jump into the search for a new head coach, with six teams — the Bears, Vikings, Dolphins, Broncos, Texans and Jaguars — already taking steps to fill their head coach vacancies and a seventh team, the Raiders, likely to enter the market. To that end, the Giants on Wednesday put in a request to interview Dan Quinn, the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator.
All GM interviews in this second round have or will take place at the Giants’ facility, conducted by co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch and also Chris Mara, the senior vice president of player personnel. The finalists will all get a tour of the facility and sit down with other members of the Giants’ front office for more casual discussions. The first round, consisting of nine interviews, were all conducted via teleconference.
The eventual hiring of someone with no ties the organization figures to be a pivotal turning point for the Giants, who have not turned their football operation over to an outsider since 1979. There have not been any stipulations given to any of the candidates, according to someone with knowledge of the hiring process, that the new GM will have to adopt any of the Giants’ front office methods, as far as player scouting and evaluations, player development or player procurement. After five consecutive seasons with double-digit losses and what will be their fifth head coach in the last eight years, ownership finally realizes it must give the new GM carte blanche to run the operation the way he sees fit.
The new GM will not be able to come in and immediately overhaul the entire scouting operation, as ongoing preparation for free agency and the NFL draft necessitates that many of the current Giants front office personnel remain in their positions. After the draft in late April, though, expect to see several moves as the new man in charge begins to shape the building to his liking.
Peters is 42 years old and yet in his 18th year working in the NFL. He was a defensive end at UCLA and got his NFL start as a scouting assistant with the Patriots, where he received Super Bowl rings in each of his first two years in New England. Peters was hired by John Elway and spent eight years in Denver, mostly running the draft for the Broncos. When John Lynch in 2017 was hired out of the broadcast booth as the 49ers’ GM, he raided the Broncos for Peters, hiring him without an official interview. Lynch, a Hall of Fame safety, had no training as an NFL executive and there are those in the 49ers organization who view Peters as the most indispensable member of the front office.
There are those inside the building at the 49ers’ Santa Clara complex who sense Peters has a strong relationship with the coaching staff and view him as comfortable in the locker room interacting with the players. He is considered to be easy to work with.
Poles, 36, the youngest of the three known finalists, is the Chiefs’ executive director of player personnel. He is the lone minority candidate to make it to the second round for an in-person interview, which fulfills the Rooney Rule requirement.
Schoen, the first of nine candidates to be interviewed via videoconference, was also the first finalist to come in for an in-person interview. Schoen, 42, is the Bills’ assistant GM.
All three finalists work for teams still alive in the playoffs. Schoen’s Bills face Poles’ Chiefs in an AFC divisional playoff game and Peters’ 49ers play the Packers at Lambeau Field in an NFC divisional game.
The other executives from the first round of Giants interviews: Ran Carthon (49ers director of player personnel), Adrian Wilson (Cardinals vice president of pro personnel), Quentin Harris (Cardinals vice president of player personnel), Ryan Cowden (Titans vice president of player personnel), Monti Ossenfort (Titans director of player personnel) and Joe Hortiz (Ravens director of player personnel).
