“First off, leadership. You got to be able to lead the team," Schoen said. "I think you have to be able to put together a good staff. I think that’s imperative that you have coaches that have coached in the NFL that have a proven track record. I think you have to develop players. We have 11 draft picks. That’s going to be important that some of those young players have to be major contributors for us in 2022, so the willingness to play young players.

"I think intelligence is important. I think being progressive in your approach to coaching, whether it’s with analytics – when to go (for it), when not to punt. I think you got to be open to all that stuff. You got to be open to sports performance, strength and conditioning. You got to listen to the experts in their fields. Those are some of the major qualities I’m looking for moving forward.”

Let's unpack that a bit. Leadership and track record in the NFL are obvious qualities, and all the candidates have that. But Schoen is looking for a modern coach, someone who's going to look into analytics and other departments instead of just the X's and O's on his play sheet.

And more importantly, Schoen is looking for someone whom he can collaboratively work with each day.

"It’s going to be imperative that someone is in lockstep with me, that I can work with, that I can have constant communication," he explained. "We’re going to be aligned in our vision of building a football team.”

That statement is why Bills OC Brian Daboll, whom Schoen has worked with for four years before taking this role, is the favorite. While he doesn't have head coaching experience -- Schoen said, "I'm not concerned if they've been a head coach before" -- the familiarity factor is there and he's seen first-hand what he's done to help Josh Allen and that highly potent Bills offense run.

But there's also Dan Quinn and Brian Flores among candidates, two men with head coaching experience and natural leaders. Quinn has been to a Super Bowl during his time with the Atlanta Falcons. Flores took a Miami Dolphins team that was supposed to be rebuilding and generated winning seasons, including this past year when they just missed a Wild Card berth.

So the docket is full with more interviews this week and a decision could be coming rather soon. Who is making the final decision?

"Ultimately, it’s going to be a collaborative effort between John, Steve, myself," Schoen answered. "We’re going to come together, we’re going to talk about the candidates. If we’re different in certain areas, we’ll continue to do our research, we’ll continue to make our calls. But ultimately, it’s going to be a collaborative effort between ownership and myself.”

The Giants feel they've hit a home run with Schoen coming into the building, but they know they need both of these hires to go the right way to ensure their on-field product matches what's going on in the front office.

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