John Harbaugh and the New York Giants are starting fresh, which means moving on from some longtime coaches and front-office staff.
The Giants reportedly parted ways with longtime senior vice president of football operations Kevin Abrams and nearly their entire defensive coaching in the first wave of moves under the veteran head coach.
The Giants, of course, have been one of the most dysfunctional organizations over the past decade, and are coming off a 4-13 campaign where they fired their head coach midseason for just the second time in the past 50 seasons.
That is a huge part why they hired Harbaugh as their head coach earlier this week. New York has won just 45 games over its past nine seasons, including its single postseason win in 2022, and had double-digit losses in 10 of the past 12 seasons.
Kevin Abrams Was With The Giants For More Than 25 Years
Parting with Abrams, an assistant GM who had been with the organization since 1999, is a huge statement about the Giants’ direction.
Abrams had worked with four different general managers, and seven coaches, while starting under Jim Fassel. He helped New York reach the Super Bowl three times in his 26-year tenure, and it of course won two championships, in 2007 and 2011 over the New England Patriots.
But according to multiple reports, including Jordan Ranaan of ESPN, Harbaugh is putting his stamp on the organization, which means long-standing members of the organization are being replaced.
“Abrams negotiated and handled contracts for much of his time with the Giants. He was the Giants’ salary cap analyst in his first three years with the team,” Ranaan wrote Wednesday. “The moves come just one day after Harbaugh was introduced as the team’s new head coach. With a new coach typically comes a new organizational structure. It began on Wednesday.”
Aside from Abrams, the Giants are also restructuring their athletic-training room. That means head athletic trainer Ronnie Barnes, the 73-year-old who had held his post since 1980, will be reassigned while the team likely brings in new ex-Baltimore Ravens personnel.
Major Changes To The Defensive Coaching Staff Are Coming
Harbaugh has a knack for identifying talented coaches, especially on defense.
Over his 18 years in Baltimore, Harbaugh had Rex Ryan, Chuck Pagano, Wink Martindale and now-Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald as his defensive coordinators, among others, who made the Charm City a destination for defense.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise the Giants are retaining almost none of their defensive staff from Shane Bowen’s group that finished the year ranked 28th and gave up the seventh-most points-against per game in 2025.
“Charlie Bullen is only Giants defensive assistant with a chance to remain under John Harbaugh,” Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post shared on X (formerly Twitter). “Joe Schoen called some assistants and told them they weren’t required for a face-to-face meeting with Harbaugh. They weren’t being retained.”
Bullen was the Giants’ outside-linebackers coach for two seasons under Bowen before he was named interim defensive coordinator after Bowen was fired Nov. 24. The Giants allowed just 21 points per game and 298.4 yards per game while going 2-3 in Bullen’s five games leading the defense.
John Harbaugh Begins Putting His Stamp On Giants With Coaching, Front Office Moves