Head Coach John Harbaugh

Q. I know coaches like to talk about all the players that are in the building. I'm going to start off by asking you about one that's not in the building.

JOHN HARBAUGH: Shocking to me (smiling).

Q. What are your thoughts on Dexter Lawrence, the prospects of him being a Giant moving forward?

JOHN HARBAUGH: We'll find out. I think the prospects are going to be high. The Giants, speaking for the Giants, we want Dexter here. I believe Dexter wants to be here. That's a good formula.

But there's business involved. It's a business proposition. We know it's pro football. These things happen every year pretty much on every team. Not surprised by it. Saw it coming a few weeks back probably.

Good conversations with Dexter's agent, Joel Segal, understood what they were thinking. This is where we're at. Try to work through it, see what we can get done.

Q. Did you speak to Dexter about this?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Not about this. I talked to Dexter early a couple times when I first got hired, first few weeks. We had great conversations. Once it moved into this type of conversation, got to be about business, we knew it was going to be an issue. Joel's preference was we talk through him.

Q. I hear your building already has a positive vibe that has not permeated there for years. 'Culture' is a hard word to define. How do you change what has been a losing culture? What does that word mean to you?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Like someday I'm going to do a book, Gary Myers will probably want to write it. We'll talk about all those things you just asked. That's some really deep stuff.

That definitely is at the heart of what we're going to try to do, try to be excited about every single day, try to approach the day, as my dad would say, with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.

We talked to the guys about that today. We had a good time. We had fun. We had great meetings. It was just a joy to be around the guys. We had all but three guys here. It was just amazing.

That's what it is. It's just a bunch of people coming together to build something together that is a team, plays like a team, plays like a team better than any other team. If you do that, then you have a chance to be the best team because the best team is the team that plays the best. I might have said that in the meeting today.

It was fun to be around the guys. It was fun to stand in front of the New York Giants today. It was an honor. I told them that. It was an honor to stand before the New York Giants, have them communicate back. We had a fun time. We had a great meeting.

Q. You mentioned three guys not there. Who are the other two?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Paulson (Adebo) wasn't here and we had Sam (Roberts) wasn't here because he has a surgery that he can't travel with yet, that he's got to wait for the stitches to heal.

Q. Paulson an excused absence?

JOHN HARBAUGH: There's no excused or unexcused. It's voluntary. Guys come or not come according to their choosing. Voluntary time of year.

Q. What is the challenge like when you have the Dex situation? What's it like to deal with that issue while trying to get to know a brand-new team?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I mean, you meet people where they're at when you can. I think it's part of it. It's pro football. It's expected. We had a great day today. When guys come back in situations like this, personal deals or whatever it might be, they merge right in.

It's like this New York traffic, or North Jersey traffic is the traffic I've been in. You try to merge on some of these roads, like Route 3 right outside here, you better be accelerating pretty quickly because it's moving, man. Hopefully it's moving. If it's not moving, it's going to take a while to get home. It's usually moving when I leave, which is a little later. I digress.

The point is you have to get up to speed quick. When someone comes back into the building from something like this, they have to hit the accelerator. They will and we'll be rolling.

Q. If I could go back for a second on Dex. How involved are you in that? Is that Joe Schoen and Dawn Aponte or as an involved head coach do you do get involved in the negotiations there, too?

JOHN HARBAUGH: That's a great question.

I'll get as involved as a head coach should, which is I'll be in conversations with Dawn and with Joe. But they'll be leading the negotiation. It's not something -- it not my expertise area, so I won't be involved as far as any negotiating.

We'll talk about it. I'll probably throw my two cents in where I can, but trust them do a great job, and I know they will, they always do.

Q. Malik Nabers, Skattebo, I don't know if anybody else had any injuries. Those two in particular people will want to know when the players can get on the field. That would be Phase II or whatnot. Where do you expect them? Will they be able to do anything this spring?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, not too much. Skatt is probably going to be ahead of Malik with that. I think you guys all know that. Scatt probably get out there a little bit at some point in time. Some degree. It wouldn't be fair for me to give you days or dates. Really haven't had that in-depth discussion with Adam (Bennett). I have a vague idea. It's not that important today. We try to focus on today.

Malik is going to be more into training camp and closer to the season. That's more Malik's timeline.

Q. Good to have him here today for the classroom stuff?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Fantastic. Classroom, he's lifting weights, in the rehab stuff. Got up and spoke like everybody did. It was great, man. Great spirits. It was fun being around him.

Q. On the Dex thing, everything is new, you're setting a foundation. How much do you take into account precedent, a guy with two years left on his contract, pressing for a raise?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I'm sure all that is factored in for sure. That's all thought about. That's not really what I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about the team meeting, I'm thinking about the offensive and defensive meetings, football. Those kind of conversations happen all the time between the parties back and forth. That's all part of it.

Q. I don't think we've asked you about Kayvon Thibodeaux. His name has come up in trade talks. How do you view him? Is he a piece of the foundation or is he a guy who could be traded?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I think he's a great player. I'm excited about him. I was fired up to see him today. He looks great, he's in great shape. I'm thinking about him on the field, getting him plugged into our defense and getting him rolling.

You want to talk about is he a trade possibility? Everybody's tradeable, everybody. Even you're tradeable, Dan. If we can get something for you, we'd trade you in a heartbeat (laughter).

It's not really what you focus on. You focus on the fact that we're having a day, we're talking ball, we're getting our team coming together as a team. The business part of it is the business part. That kind of swirls around us. We try to lock in on the football.

Q. Obviously you've talked a lot about Jaxson, how you communicate with him. Now that you guys have been in person and talked, first day, what are those conversations? How are you feeling about him? How are you feeling about him now that Matt Nagy and the offensive staff have talked with him, building that relationship to help him in year two?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Great questions.

I saw him in the team offensive meeting and then the quarterback meeting. I didn't stay there for the quarterback meeting. I talked to him as they were getting ready.

He had a new pen for his notepad. You guys are old school, you're like me, you have the three-ring spiral notebooks with the actual pen. I actually have an erasable pen. He has one that writes on the iPad that you can log and everything.

But he was opening it up. It was all foreign to me. I didn't know what it was.

What was the question?

Q. How are those conversations going with him as far as building him up, developing him? How is that growing now that you're talking more?

JOHN HARBAUGH: That's a great question.

Today was the first day for football, the first day we had a chance to talk football. What I witnessed was the first install, which is just the very first example of how we're going to build the offense. That's what was put in today. I saw that put in. I saw him reacting to it, interacting. I asked him what he thought about it. Seemed excited. Just kind of dipping our toe in the water today with that.

But it was fun to see offense up on the screen and Jaxson right there taking his notes. That was awesome. It was a good start.

Q. You had said before just the idea of what's important now, what isn't important. I think you were referring to Malik in terms of his timeline on the field. What is important for you right now? How have you evolved through the years in terms of what you want to get out of the spring?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I don't know if it's evolved. Probably is more the same now as it's ever been. We want to get the most done we possibly can in the four hours they allot. We want the guys to take their iPads home and study them and make the most of the day.

We worry about today. Tomorrow has enough troubles of its own. We want to make the most of the day. We want to get everything we possibly can done in the time that is allotted. We want to be as organized as we can. We want to present something efficiently as we can. We want the system that we're presenting to be as well built as we can. We want to put as many miles behind us today as we possibly can.

I think what I'm saying is we want to get everything done we can. But there's certain things you can do, certain things that you can't do, we are not practicing. There is nothing on the field right now. There are not any walk-throughs or anything like that.

We want to have the best meetings we can have, weight lifting, best conditioning session that we can, and also get to know the guys.

For me it's like a lot of faces. I don't know who everybody is. Even when I see them, I don't know who they are. I'm like John Harbaugh. Hi, John Harbaugh. Most guys will say, hey and give me their name. Some guys don't give me their name. Dude, I'm not really sure who you are (laughter). I don't really know their face yet.

It's been that kind of a day. That's part of making the most of the first day. First day of school sort of. It's been really great. It's been really fun.

Q. You had mentioned the systems. You've talked about how you knew what you wanted on the defensive side of the ball, but offense was a work in progress. How close are you to having something to present to the guys in total for the offensive side of the ball?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, we have the system built. Not to say it won't evolve, because it's always a work in progress. We have the system built.

What we'll start doing is installing it so they get a grasp of how it's put together. Like even today we showed them how it's put together so they can start getting their arms around about how to think about the words and the terms, what comes off of what, how it's structured so once we dive into the specific plays, they can kind of just understand them better.

Like what exactly we do, we want to build a system that we can do all these different things in a way that's easy to understand, easy to operate.

Once we start to understand the players and how the players fit together better, then you decide what road you go down, what things you do, even in a game plan based on your opponent, it tightens up a little more.

That will be an ongoing process through training camp.

Q. I think you said you had Malik talk to the team. You said everybody did. What goes into that? Why do you think about doing that? Just how different was this day for you compared to the 18 previous ones that you've had of first days of off-season programs?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Right, two great questions.

The first one was we just did an introduction thing. We started with the coaches and worked our way through the whole team. It was a little different than, I'm Tom Rock, played at Southern Cal, I'm an offensive tackle. It was more, I'm Tom Rock, we want our identity and we want our purpose.

Give us a quick overview on your identity, how you see yourself as a player, as a person, whatever you want, how do you see your purpose. Identity and purpose, purpose and identity. Each guy went through that, told us a little bit about that.

Those are the things when you're a little bit vulnerable that way you open up a little bit more, you start to get to know each other more, bond a little bit with each other.

How different is it for me than 18 years? It was different. It was a football meeting in front of a team. So that's not new. But it was the New York Giants. I told them how much it meant to me to be standing in front of the New York Giants, what an honor it was to have an opportunity to have our first team meeting with the New York Giants.

Q. Did anybody surprise you in terms of giving their identity and purpose?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Oh, no, no. I was impressed. I was impressed. Everybody was really thoughtful about it. It was some really deep, good stuff.

Q. On Dex, you mentioned there's a high probability he returns. How much are you at least willing to entertain the possibility of granting his request for a trade?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I don't know if 'granting a request' is the right way to say it. It doesn't really work that way. It's not a Christmas gift. It just doesn't work like that. It's business.

The business is to be the best football team we can be. The business for him I'm sure is for him to be the best player he can be. There's financial obligations, restraints, opportunities, all the things that go around that because this is pro football. I guess there is in college football now, too. It's just different a little bit in the way it works with the contracts in this league. That's really what it boils down to.

We'll see what happens.

Q. You mentioned Paulson is also absent. Why is he not there? Contract related? Injury related?

JOHN HARBAUGH: It's like we just got done, I don't know, 45 minutes ago. I'm not exactly sure. But it's his right. It's his reason, whatever his reason is. I'll be interested to hear it. But it is what it is. It's okay.

Q. You went through a very public trade request with Lamar Jackson a few years ago in Baltimore. You got that to the finish line where he was still your franchise quarterback. What did you learn from that situation, if anything, about how to bring something like Dex's situation to a resolution positively?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Right. Another great question.

I think we knew this going in, the way it was approached was just with patience. We knew the relationships were the relationships. We had great relationships.

It's a little different because I knew Lamar at that point. We had been working together for like five years, six years. Four years, five years, something like that. It's not quite that way with Dex. I don't know Dex as well.

I think it's the same in the sense of it's just understanding it's part of the business of the job. It will get resolved. It's going to work out.

Dexter wants to play, we want him to play. How it's all going to shake out, we don't control that. We're not given to know the future. The only thing we really can't control is the outcome. What we can control is how we approach it along the way, with respect, professionally, absolutely.

All these players in this league, all the coaches in this league, all the front office people in the league deserve to be highly respected. It's high level business, high level football. I'm sure it will be handled in a real high level way like that. I'm not worried about it.

Q. You've spoken a lot about Dexter from the business side. Can you speak to what he can bring to the team on the field and in terms of as a culture setter?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, Dexter, he's a veteran guy. He's got a lot of skins on the wall, as they say. He's a dominant football player. I know he's excited.

I know this, because he told me this a few weeks back when we talked, he wants to play his best football of his career. He's expecting to play the best football of his career. From what Joel his agent said he's working super hard training and everything.

That's what I expect. I expect him to come out and be that leader by example, be that leader by what he says, what he does. Just who he is. Be himself, be you, be the best you that you can be. All the things that I think Dexter is about, I would expect him to be all those things.

Defensive Coordinator Dennard Wilson

Q. I know you want to focus on players who are there. One of the biggest players on the team who is not there is (defensive lineman) Dexter (Lawrence II). What do you think he means to your defense? How anxious are you to get him in the building?

DENNARD WILSON: Yeah, obviously Dexter is a great player in the National Football League. I love the way he plays. I love the style that he plays. He's a big man, anchors this defense.

It's part of the business right now. Everything right now is voluntary. The CBA says he doesn't need to be here right now. We'll see how things play itself out.

Hopefully everything works out in our favor but hey, I love Dexter. We have a good relationship. Communicated with him weeks ago and we'll see how things play itself out.

Q. You said you talked to him weeks ago?

DENNARD WILSON: Talked to Dex weeks ago, especially when I first got the job. Just opened a line of communication. He was in a good place. For me personally, from an organization standpoint, we understand the value of Dex. We love him. We understand the business side, as well.

Q. Would you be able to share your vision for this defense? (Head Coach) John (Harbaugh) has talked a lot about he knows what you guys want to do on that side of the ball. As someone who is now in charge of putting the plan together, what do you see the New York Giants defense in 2026 as?

DENNARD WILSON: I'll put it like this: in terms of the structure and the way we play, we're going to be unpredictable. We're going to be unpredictable on how we line up and what we do, all right? We're going to be dynamic because we have dynamic players. It's our job to put those dynamic players in the greatest positions to have success.

We're going to be decisive on what we do and how we do it. We're going to game plan. We're going to have detailed and educated pressures. Then we are going to be unapologetic in our approach. Those are the four things that we are going to do.

And the unapologetic part of our approach is we're going to be playing nasty. We're going to play physical. We're going to play violent. We're going to live on the edge, play on the edge, but we're not going to hurt the team.

We're going to be suffocating to the point we impose our wills on people. The players are going to buy into that mindset. It all starts from a mindset. We're going to play the New York football, brand of football, and that's violent defense.

Q. You mentioned the dynamic players you have on this defense. Obviously those guys include (outside linebacker) Brian Burns, (Outside linebacker) Abdul Carter. What do you see from those two guys, what you see from them on tape so far?

DENNARD WILSON: First of all, both of the young men, they love football, okay? They are problems in terms of the pass-rush. It's hard for people to block them. Why? They're explosive off the ball. They can win on the edge. They have length. They can play underneath guys. They have numerous tools in their tool bag. Once you overplay them, they can counter.

I loved the energy and effort today. They were so attentive in the room, talking about the style of ball, how we're going to play up front, the violence in which we're going to play in, the way we're going to build a wall and set violent edges to make teams run in a phone booth, how we're going to play vertical knock-back, how we're going to crush and close, these guys can do it all. Plus, they add the versatility, you can move them around.

Last year and even in Penn State, especially with Abdul, the way he was used, you can move him off the ball, he can be the spinner on third downs. You can add a fifth rusher. There is numerous things you can do with both of the guys. Both of them are smart football players. They have a good grasp of conceptual defense.

I can't wait to see what they do extremely well up close in person. Then we'll build a defense ultimately around the players that we have. We have a scheme, but these two guys are premier players within a scheme that we want to have a lot of success. We have to put them in positions to have success.

Q. You mentioned the New York style of football. Is that something that attracted you, the history, because you know what the Giants' defense typically stands for?

DENNARD WILSON: Yes. Who wouldn't want to coach for the New York Giants? Who doesn't want to coach this team with this rich history? Who doesn't want to be in New York City and New Jersey, all right?

We made a decision as a family, I made a decision to come here to embrace that. Who doesn't want to work for John Harbaugh? I had one of my greatest years working under John Harbaugh and I know what he brings to the table.

These defensive coaches and the coaches he has assembled are on the same page, going into the same direction for the long obedience, trying to stay well-connected and a well-oiled machine, trying to put together defenses and offenses that are simple for the players to play at a fast pace and a fast level, to ultimately go out there and be the best versions of themselves.

Who wouldn't want to be in New York? It's kind of that New York state of mind.

Q. You have a diverse background of coaches you came up under. Who would you say your scheme most resembles?

DENNARD WILSON: It's a mix of everybody. Obviously, man, one of my friends, a colleague, (Seattle Seahawks head coach) Mike Macdonald, who I worked with closely in Baltimore for a year. There's a lot of things I took from that. Being around (Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach) Todd Bowles, who has been a defensive coordinator and a head coach in this league for numerous years. My background is very similar to his.

Playing and then coaching for (former NFL coach) Gregg Williams and being under (former NFL coach) Jeff Fisher. These are people that have put together defenses that are violent, they were physical, but they were multiple, they competed at a high level. They played a certain brand of football where toughness and tenacity bleeds through the film that you watch. That's been my upbringing and that's what I know.

Q. You mentioned Mike. He's the top dog right now. What did you take from him from that year that you can apply here?

DENNARD WILSON: Mike had a collaborative approach. I was fortunate enough to go to Baltimore for a year. Mike, his superpower is listening. He listens to his coaches but he has a direction in which he wants to go.

If you watch Seattle play, they win up front. They have a very good secondary. Their secondary played in sync, in unison. Up front, they were able to dominate. They were able to play the run with less guys in the box and when you do that and you can play some split safety defense and have seven guys in the box, you try to minimize the explosive perimeter runs and explosive plays down the field in the pass game and you have the guys that can avalanche the pocket when teams get in drop-back situations and you're one on one and you're pressing and playing physical outside, there's no longer a fraction of time for the quarterback to sit back there and pat the ball.

We're trying to go in that direction. We're going to be multiple in what we do. We're going to pressure. We'll get guys in situations, we're going to pressure just like he does. I think he's done a very good job of just playing good situational football and having the right pieces to execute what he's trying to do.

Q. Obviously your background is defensive backs. What do you see from your cornerbacks, from film work, the depth chart, what you see of your cornerback position, particularly I'm interested in (cornerback) Deonte Banks, if you met him before the draft at all, if you've chatted with him? Obviously a first-round pick who has been up and down here, at a pivotal point in his career.

DENNARD WILSON: Yeah, it's a mixture of older and younger guys in the room. It's a room that's going to be competitive. We have guys that have played at a high level, then we have some young guys that haven't had the opportunity to play.

It's our job as coaches to get them to play as one. I don't think it's an individual thing. When you play good defense in the back end, it's all four or five guys that's on the field. You got to know and put them in the best positions and call the right things to allow them to play as fast as they need to play.

It's going to be competition at the position, just like everywhere else. I think competitiveness and competition makes your team better.

The question in terms of Banks, yeah, I know Banks. I remember evaluating him coming out. He's a Maryland Terp and I'm a Maryland Terp. I had just a little bit of background with him. He's a talented player. He's big. He can run. He brings an element of physicality, but he's had an up-and-down career thus far.

For us, it's coming in with a clean slate. That's everybody on this defense. No matter what has been done in the past, where they were drafted, how they were acquired, we're coming in here as a clean slate, we're trying to evaluate the players, see what they do well, and we're trying to teach them our way of football.

In terms of Banks, I think we have two great DB coaches in (defensive pass coordinator/secondary coach) Donald (D'Alesio) and (defensive backs coach) Addison (Lynch) that does an excellent job in teaching DB play, footwork, technique, eyes. I think it's going to be beneficial to all of them.

Tae will have the opportunity to go out there and get better, we're going to put things on his plate, try to make things as simple as they can be in terms of conceptual teaching and that's for everybody.

I was raised, my dad always told me, keep it simple. We have ways to kind of simplify things to make it all fit no matter what the call or the structure is.

We're going to give them all opportunity and we're going to see what they all can pick up, how they grasp it. The best guys are going to play ultimately. If that answers your question.

Q. Your big offseason signing from the defensive side was in the middle of your defense, (inswide linebacker) Tremaine Edmunds. What did you see from him and why did you feel that was necessary?

DENNARD WILSON: Well, first of all, I think you got to have a very good middle linebacker, very good linebackers in order to play this game, whether it's in the pass game or stopping the run. One of our big objectives this year is to stop the run.

But when you watch Tremaine play, first of all he's a 6'4" guy with length. When he comes downhill, he presses and separates. He makes a lot of plays at the line of scrimmage. He's an athletic guy that can run the ball down sideline to sideline. He plays with a high motor. He can defend in the middle of the defense, especially in the pass game, especially with what we do the Mike linebacker plays between the hashes a lot. Then he can get in windows. He has the right temperament. He's in a position and he's in a mindset of proving himself and reproving himself again. He's hungry. He's ready to go out there and fight for his teammates.

So, I'm excited for the opportunity. He's a smart and intelligent young man and he's still young. He's been in the league for an extended period of time, but he's still young. He still has room to grow. I can't wait to see the product. I can't wait to see the way as this thing grows and how we morph this defense and it becomes their defense, they take control of it, how he mans the middle of the defense. I'm excited for him and I'm excited for the organization because we got a very good player.

Q. Another linebacker that everyone naturally connects to you guys, (Ohio State linebacker) Sonny Styles in the draft. What would you think as a defensive coordinator if you added a player like that to the mix?

DENNARD WILSON: I'll just say this about the draft. I like good players, period. I don't care where they at. I'm not going to say no to any good player.

Q. When you were studying film upon getting this job, how would you describe what you saw from Dexter's film? When you look at his stats last year, what do you make of that?

DENNARD WILSON: I'm not going to get into all the numbers.

What I see is this. I see a big, physical man that owns the middle of the defense, that demands double-teams, that takes pressures off the linebackers. We talked about getting Tremaine. When you have a guy that's stout in the middle of the field, a defensive lineman that's stout in the middle of the field, it allows linebackers to get over the top or come down hill, fit one back, one gap or whatever it may be.

Dexter is still a productive player in the National Football League. You have to deal with him. We'll see how it goes. But he's a great football player.

Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy

Q. I'm sure when you're looking at jobs and things and (head coach) John (Harbaugh) calls you, and you think, okay, Giants, I would imagine maybe the first thing is, okay, who is the quarterback? Who am I going to work with here? When you asked that question and you started digging into (quarterback) Jaxson Dart, what did you see, and what do you think? Then seeing him today, how did that feel?

MATT NAGY: Yeah, well, to start off, I was really excited when Coach Harbs gave me the phone call. We've had a prior relationship years ago.

Obviously, him being in the (Chiefs head coach) Andy Reid tree from back in Philadelphia, there's a connection there, and I've had a ton of respect for him as a person and as a coach, the success he's had. So, when he called initially, it was just great to talk to him. Then you start getting into the football side of it and what we have going on here.

I was able to watch a decent amount of Jaxson last year when I was in Kansas City. We try to take as little time as possible in Kansas City watching the quarterback position, but every year I will watch just to kind of see the top guys that are there.

I remember coming away really impressed with Jaxson and his accuracy. Back then, a year ago or two years ago, I didn't know how tough he was and how good of a runner he was. He was a really good, sneaky good runner, tough, physical, played the quarterback position well, accurate. You could see he was a competitor.

I remember then at the combine, us not really being in the quarterback market, watching him, just kind of observing how he handled himself in that group of guys at the combine. You could see this moxie that he had, and he had this "it" factor.

When I got here to New York and got to meet him and started talking to him, you could tell right away that everything was true. This kid is different that way. My initial conversation with Coach Harbs was, hey, excited, really looking forward to being able to help out in many ways and building that relationship and that trust. I know he had a great year last year, but we want to make it even better and continue to have him grow, and I want to be there to help him.

Q. I'm curious, the coaching staff that Coach Harbaugh put together has you at the top of the offensive chart, but there are so many guys on that below you or working with you who have called plays, who have been head coaches, who have been coordinators. How does that dynamic work as you put this offense together? What is that like?

MATT NAGY: Well, to tell you the truth, it's actually been one of the most – not surprising, but it's really been invigorating for me. To your question, you have all these guys that have all this experience and backgrounds of coordinators, head coaches. There's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of guys.

Going into this, you can look at it different ways. I think if you look at it one way you could say, well, my title is offensive coordinator, and it's my job to do everything. That's not true. You know, we have so many – Coach Harbs did such a great job at bringing in guys with a ton of experience, and I'd be foolish to not use that. They've been amazing.

It's been so much fun putting this offense together, our offense here. I know a lot of different coaches with a lot of different backgrounds from different teams, a lot of different coaches with OC experience, head coaching experience.

You look at a guy like – you look at (passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach) Brian Callahan. Here's a former head coach that's now a quarterback coach and passing game coordinator. I did that in 2022 after I got fired in Chicago. I went back to Kansas City in the same role.

In that interview process with Calli, I wanted him to understand and know, it's not easy doing what you're doing. I have a ton of respect for what you are doing, and I'm going to be there. We're going to team up together to tackle this thing together and make it ours.

You get a guy like (senior offensive assistant) Greg Roman, who has been an offensive coordinator in our division in Kansas City last year, and here he is coming in and been doing this a long time. That's awesome, the value that he brings.

A guy like (offensive line coach) Mike Bloomgren has been a head coach at Rice. (Running backs coach) Willie Taggart has been a head coach at four or five different colleges. The experience goes on and on and on. You've got (tight ends coach) Tim Kelly, who was an offensive coordinator.

For me it's so important for all of us – and we talked about it – put the egos aside. Let's make this ours. Let's not worry about whose idea it is. Let's make it our idea, and let's run with it. Let's make it make sense to the guys, and let's go out there and figure out as we go through OTAs and into training camp what we're going to look like.

I can't thank those guys enough, and it starts at the top with Coach Harbaugh. I've just been really, really fortunate and lucky, because it's a beautiful staff.

Q. What do you think of your running back position? (Running back) Cam Skattebo is a kind of a character. (Running back) Tyrone Tracy has been here, and then you've been connected to (Notre Dame running back) Jeremiyah Love quite a bit in the draft. What do you think of the two running backs you have, and I guess the running back position overall, because there are so many different takes on how valuable the running back is in today's draft and today's NFL?

MATT NAGY: Yeah, the running back room, our room, I'm excited about the guys that are there. There's others too within that room that we have. There are some that I don't know much about, and I'm excited to see who these guys are and what they bring.

You brought up specifically with Cam and Tracy, two guys that have experience, two guys that are very hungry. They're still young. So how do they fit in what we do is to be determined. Obviously Skatt (is) coming off the injury.

You know, one of the things we talked about in our meeting today was for everybody in this room, and specifically on offense for us, was y'all got a clean slate. So, there are going to be some guys in different positions that might have had different experiences or different paths, but it's a clean slate, and it's on them and us to see where we're at.

That running back room is a big part of the offense. You look at what we want to try to do and what we want to get to. That's going to be a big part of it. Again, with the running backs in the draft, there's quite a bit of good guys there. You brought up Love and what a great talent he is. To be determined how that all plays out, but we're excited about who we have right now and who we know we have.

Q. Even though you're on the other side of the ball, I'm not going to spare you from the topic of the day. Last year you had to game plan against the Giants with (defensive lineman) Dexter Lawrence in the middle. What is it like as an offensive coach going against him when he's in the center of the opposing defense?

MATT NAGY: Yeah, he's a beast. Not to mention the other three or four guys on that line. I remember all the defensive fronts that we saw and went against last year that, without a doubt, this being the top one.

When I came here to New York, I was super excited about it, but also knowing now that we're going to be seeing it every single day in practice and in training camp. It will only make us better.

Dexter is a hell of a player. He's been doing it a while, and a lot of respect for him. I just know that when we played him last year, we had to know where he was on every play.

Q. John said he asked everybody to sort of introduce themselves today and tell them their identity and their purpose. What's your identity and purpose, and what do you want this offense's identity and purpose to be?

MATT NAGY: Yeah, well, for me my purpose, and a lot of us brought this up when we were in there, it's your family and it's these teammates. I'm a father of four boys. I have a beautiful wife. We've been married a long time. It starts there.

Then it connects here to the players and the team. This is new family for me, which is awesome, and it's fun. You know, being able to have that is great. Whether it's the purpose, identity, to me it's all about impact. You want to change people in the right way. You want to connect people. You want to impact.

I'm about doing everything we can possibly do to win because, let's face it, that's why we're all here. We need to win. We want to win, and how are we going to get there, so being able to win and understand what that plan is. But competitive, truth and love, and find every way to win is kind of what we all talked about. So, it was pretty cool.

Q. I guess conceptually what are you looking for out of a rookie quarterback going into his second year, and what do you want to see from Jaxson as he kind of makes that leap this offseason and heading into the spring?

MATT NAGY: Sure. Well, it's going to start off by building off the confidence he has from last year. He was able to really put together a good year as a rookie. You want to grow from that. So it's our job as coaches to make sure we see what he did well, but then we're also going to make sure we're staying locked in on him improving on certain areas.

We see things on tape as we go through it, but now we've got to get out here and as we build this offense, give him places and areas to grow. The one thing I love about Jaxson, is Jaxson wants to be the best. He really does. When you have that, that's half the battle. He's a connector himself. Just seeing and hearing from other coaches how much he's connected with his teammates last year, that's awesome.

He wants to be the best. He wants to be coached hard, have that discipline, and work on his footwork, his timing, and his connection with teammates. We're going to do that.

I think for him it's not going to all come in one practice. It's going to take some time, but it's our job as coaches to be able to show him these clips and get to training camp and get to the games and then win and be able to keep finding areas where he's doing things well, but that he can also grow.

Q. Kind of going back to Jaxson, you mentioned him wanting to be the best. You've been around a quarterback that a lot of people think is one of the best right now in Mahomes. How do you go about imparting some of the lessons that (Chiefs quarterback Patrick) Mahomes showed and also knowing, hey, Dart is his own guy, but how do you try to incorporate this, what worked for him just mentally and kind of helping fuse that into Dart, if you will?

MATT NAGY: No doubt. The thing I would say with that conversation that I've had with Jaxson is just what you said. I think it's a great point. He's Jaxson Dart. He's not Patrick Mahomes.

I was able to be fortunate enough to be around Patrick for many years, and I saw Patrick as a rookie, and I got to see him when I came back from Chicago four years in. I got to see four more years of him as a vet.

But we can use that for more, like, routines and maybe how we did things, but the one thing that I know – first of all, I know how much respect that Jaxson has for Patrick. We've talked a little bit about the process and what he's been through, but we've also made it clear, you have to be Jaxson Dart. He's going to do that.

It's our job to surround him and insulate him, give him direction, but he has to be able it on tell us, how he likes it, why he likes it, and so forth. We're going to be really intentional on how we do that. You look at Brian Callahan. He's been around a lot of great quarterbacks too, and he's in a room with them now. He's seen (former NFL quarterback) Peyton Manning to (Rams quarterback) Matthew Stafford to (Bengals quarterback) Joe Burrow. That's valuable. That's really valuable.

Also, too, I don't want to be remised on (quarterback) Jameis Winston. Just today being with him and having a couple of off-the-field, private conversations with him just to learn who he is – really, really impressed with him too. It's a healthy quarterback room. Just really looking forward to what that recipe looks like to help build those guys.

Q. Sometimes you hear coaches talk all the time about players stepping out of their comfort zone, trying to pull them out. That when the guys get comfortable, it's hard to take them out of that. I'm wondering from your perspective, there are probably a lot of coaches in the league who look at your situation the last couple of years – you have a Hall of Fame coach there and the position you were in, you are coaching the best quarterback in the league. What about you and what you want for this next step allowed you to get out of that comfort zone and take the opportunity here that you have now?

MATT NAGY: I really felt like, you know, I started my coaching career with Coach Reid in Philadelphia in 2010 to 2012. Then he brought me in as a quarterback coach and turned into a coordinator, non-playcaller in Kansas City. Took that to Chicago and back to Kansas City.

Throughout that time, I've been with Coach a long time. I wouldn't be here today without Coach Reid. He's been my biggest mentor and has taught me so much.

At the same point in time, I feel like after Chicago I had four years in Kansas City, four great years in Kansas City, learned a lot, but it was also you get to a point where I think it's just like, okay, maybe it's time for movement, maybe it's time for me.

I've never been an offensive coordinator playcaller. Never. I've either been a non-playcaller OC or been a head coach playcaller; but I've never been just an offensive coordinator playcaller. That to me was really exciting.

Now coming here to New York with this staff the last several months, what we're doing is this isn't a pick up and place down Kansas City or a pick up and place down Baltimore. We're taking all of these different backgrounds that we have, and we're going to make it ours. It's going to be the New York Giants and how we do things.

That's going to take some time, but for me I'm excited about that opportunity. It's really a lucky opportunity. I'm fortunate. Then I also get to see, too, how Coach Harbaugh does things as a leader at the forefront as the head coach. There's a lot of benefits to it.

I really appreciate Coach Reid and the rest of the Chiefs, but this is a positive time for me.

Q. I kind of just wanted to build on that for a second, because you said it's our offense. It's not going to be the same as Kansas City or Baltimore. It's going to be different. I'm curious, when you envision what it's going to look like, and obviously probably what you envision now might end up looking different by the time we get there, but what do you see when you envision it at this point?

MATT NAGY: Yeah, it's going to be physical, I can tell you that. Now, there are different ways when we say physical. I think if you look at any team that Coach Harbaugh has always had on both sides, all three phases, the word "physical" is the first thing you think of. So, it's going to start there. That's not a hidden fact.

But from there now we've got to work around our players' strengths, and we've got to say, okay, in the run game, in pass pro, in the pass game these buckets that we form of all three phases, where do we want to start? Well, we got to start with these guys understanding how we do things, and then once we get to OTAs and into training camp, it will kind of start to get personalized.

What I see from that is a really great mix of different things. I can't tell you right now exactly what it's going to look like. I can tell you, you know, this will be the first time that, again, that we're putting this together. To me as we're going through this as a staff, I can say it really hasn't been seen, which is a good thing, I think.

What it is exactly, we have an idea big picture, but what it becomes through these players' strengths we'll have a direction. That's the exciting part.

I mean, I'll give you an example. There are some plays that we've done, and we might teach on the front end, but we might see that it just, for whatever reason, doesn't fit our players right now, and there are other plays that are better, so we're going to do those and work around our guys.

We're going to have some fun, but we're going to be really good at what we do, because we're going to be detailed and have that less-is-more concept.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the signing of (offensive lineman) Lucas Patrick yesterday, because I think he's the first offensive lineman you signed who wasn't on the team last year. I'm curious what you guys like about him, and how much do you view him as a potential starter at right guard at this point?

MATT NAGY: A guy that has a lot of experience. He's been around. I think when you have that experience as a coach, it's nice to know that you get a guy that's been there, done that.

We'll go through this process. Once you get through the draft, you kind of see where you're at. You get to see where these other players are that we have. Competition is beautiful. We have a lot of places right now where there's going to be a lot of great competition.

It's a great chance in OTAs to let these guys place them in and see where they fit best and a little bit of musical chairs for some, and others it may not be. I think it's great for us.

Got to meet and see him yesterday and talk a little bit about his experience, but he gives us valued experience that is always important to have.

Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Chris Horton

Q. I wanted to talk about the value of the punter you brought in. You bring a punter in and make him the highest paid punter in the league. That's statement enough. Tell us why the punter you had is now the punter you still have and why Jordan Stout is so important to what you want to do?

CHRIS HORTON: That's a great question. You know, when you look at Jordan's body of work over time and what he's done the last four years, he's put it all together. I think he finally hit the height of his punting career up until this point.

When you look at all the things that he can do on the field, for us punting is about protecting the punt and flipping the field. Jordan gives you that. He has the leg strength to do that.

When you talk about how the game has changed a little bit now that the drive starts starting a little bit further down the field from a kickoff return standpoint, Jordan has the ability to pin people down inside the 10, inside the 5. All those things come together. Not only that, he's a great holder.

Those three things make up a really good punter. So it's not so much that you look at him and say, well, he's the highest paid punter. He got paid off of production. This is a production-based business. When guys perform well, they get compensated for it.

Q. Is he a great example for you to show patience for younger guys when they come in this league, because when he came in, it wasn't all of a sudden, hey, he's the best punter in the league, but like you said, as he's developed into that you've all had a hand into where he's at today?

CHRIS HORTON: 100%. I think that goes with any player. Any young player, we understand there's time and there's development, and there's a process that we follow. As long as your arrow is continuing to go up every year, I think the guys tend to trend in the right direction.

Q. A couple of things. You know John Harbaugh as well as anybody from working with him for so long. Did he seem different today at all in a new environment, a new team, new players, new franchise? Did any kind of vibe hit you today?

CHRIS HORTON: These team meetings, I've been around him 12 team meetings (to kick off the offseason program) with Coach Harbaugh. Just outstanding. Him in front of the room, in front of the guys, you see why the players respect him and the players love him.

He's about as authentic as they come. Did I see a little more juice, more pop? He's excited. We're excited. You know, we're excited to be here. We're the New York Football Giants. We're all excited to be here. He was ready to go. He was fired up. He and I talked about it this morning. It was an awesome team meeting.

Q. Is there something in the role you have now and have had for John knowing the role he had for all those years in Philadelphia that it's like, you know, you're not working for a guy who was a great offensive coordinator or a great defensive coordinator. You are working for a guy who was the special teams guy. Is there something to that that you are, like, all right, I got to extra good to work with him in the role I'm in now?

CHRIS HORTON: I just think it's more of you just got to be good at your job at anything you do, right? You've just got to understand that he's not just a special teams coach. He understands the defense. He understands the offense in pretty depth -- like with a lot of knowledge.

For me it's not so much, hey, I'm working for John Harbaugh. I understand the expectations. I understand the standard. That's a good thing to be a part of.

I want to be the best. He and I talk about this all the time. He did it for ten years, and he was the best when he did it. Now that I'm in this situation, my goal is, hey, I want to put the players out there, we want to play well, and I want to be the best. That's a great standard to have.

Q. Curious what the evaluation of Jason Sanders was like for a guy who obviously missed all of last year? How did you know where he was at and get comfortable with that?

CHRIS HORTON: You kind of sit back, you watch the tape, and you figure out who is out there. We come here, look at the tape, and it's like, oh, Jason didn't play last year, but you watch that tape from the year before, and it was outstanding.

So there was a kicker out there, a veteran kicker. Just felt like it was an opportunity to bring him in and let's see what he can do.

Q. Where is he at physically now? Are you going to have to manage his workload coming off the injury, or is he full go? I know it's just a sprain, but just in terms of your plan for him.

CHRIS HORTON: He's been ready to go since I think the last four weeks of last season. So, you know, he's in a good place. He's been kicking. He and I have had a lot of conversation about how he wants to go about it, what he needs from me so that I can see him. He's ready to go, and he's going to kick well.

Q. Just kind of going back to you and Harbs' relationship, when you agreed to take this job, obviously you're working with somebody that you are really familiar with, you know so well. When you are with a new team implementing your system, I guess, how does that relationship make it easy to just kind of come in and do your job knowing that you are already aligned with somebody that is somebody you're really close with?

CHRIS HORTON: One of the things we talk about is really just being on the same page, having a shared vision. That's really big on what Harbs is always talking about. Then when you get this opportunity to take this job, you know that you're working for someone that's going to give you the time and the opportunity to lay the foundation, because it's new. It's not in place.

So when you take this job, you know the time is going to be given for you to implement your system, and it's not going to be undercut.

Q. The always accurate Wikipedia tells me that you spent six months with the 2012 Giants at the end of your career. Is that accurate?

CHRIS HORTON: That is accurate, yes, I did.

Q. What's your story about the 2012 Giants? What do you remember from those six months or from Tom Coughlin or from Tom Quinn or from whatever? What sticks out from those six months at the end of your career?

CHRIS HORTON: You know, just when I got this opportunity, I had been out 2011. Giants called me. Dave Merritt called me on draft day back in 2008, and the Commanders ended up drafting me at the time.

I kind of missed that opportunity early, but once I got here in 2012, I was just coming into a place. Giants were coming off a Super Bowl win. It was different. I was walking into a building where I just wanted an opportunity to play.

I remember going up to Albany (for training camp). It was hot. You know, it was hot. Just being here having a great time, just sitting in TC's meetings and just understanding, okay, everybody says you got a hard-nosed coach and kind of what that was like.

Then being under Tom Quinn, just kind of working through it. Obviously I dealt with injuries, so it didn't last very long, but I was excited to be here. At that point this had been really a great organization to come into. You hear all the stories. It's the Giants, you know? You're going to the Giants, and it proved everything to be. I'm excited to be back.

Q. I was going to say, did it feel any different coming back? Obviously they haven't been good in a long time. Did it feel any different coming back into the building? Not necessarily today. The first time you were in the building a couple of weeks ago, a month ago, two months ago, whatever, did it feel any different to you now or like a hungrier vibe maybe than a been-there-done-that vibe?

CHRIS HORTON: Like I said, just excitement, man. Just excited to be back. You know, as a player, it's different. Now I'm on the other side. I am the special teams coach, right?

I'm hungry from a development standpoint, and I'm hungry in a standpoint of I want to see, one, this team play well, and not only see the special teams excel, so that's what I'm hungry for, and that's the feeling that I got going on.

Q. Going back to just that relationship with John, you've been obviously in the special teams coordinator role for a while, but what did you when you first got to Baltimore kind of learn from him, because he had been in that kind of same role for a while that you've implemented in your own system and the way you approach the job as coordinator?

CHRIS HORTON: Early on, I've said this before, you know, it was more so Harbs was, hey, what do you want to do? Do you want to stay on defense, or do you want to be the special teams coach? Right away I was, like, hey, I want to be the special teams coach, because I embrace this phase of the game.

I do feel like sometimes people take it for granted, but it's just talking to guys and just being able to get them to go jump-start their career or extend their careers. I think it's very important. If you embrace this phase of the game, you can play a really long time.

Things I learned from him is, one, you have to stay on them. You've got to be relentless in your coaching and the techniques. Sometimes when you feel like guys have gotten it, you have to just continue to just press on, press on. It's not always going to be good, and you have to understand that.

Just being able to, you know what, do you believe in what you're teaching? If you believe in what you're teaching, you'll get the job done, and it will start to show itself, and it will come to surface.