Even prior to Dave Gettleman announcing his retirement from football, the New York Giants had begun to look forward. They knew a major overhaul was necessary and that included a new general manager and, likely, a new assistant general manager.
In the end, the Giants landed on Joe Schoen, who had previously been with the Buffalo Bills, as their next GM. But that decision only came after an exhaustive search that included a multitude of interviews.
Several candidates rose to the top alongside Schoen, including Ryan Poles.
Poles had served as the executive director of player personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs and was widely viewed as a rising star. And the Giants were so impressed with his interview that although they settled on Schoen, had begun to consider other options for Poles.
While appearing on Talkin’ Giants this week, ESPN reporter Jordan Raanan revealed that the Giants considered hiring Poles as the assistant GM — a job that ultimately went to Brandon Brown after Kevin Abrams took on a different organizational role.
.@JordanRaanan on why Joe Schoen stood out more than the rest when hired and if Ryan Poles didn’t get another GM job, there’s a chance he would be the Giants Assistant GM 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/KcxNjPcqEE
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) February 22, 2022
“The Giants loved him. To the point where they had an idea, ‘okay, if we hire another guy, we’d love to hire Ryan Poles as our assistant general manager.’ If he didn’t get another job, which he eventually did,” Raanan said.
Poles, of course, went on to land the Chicago Bears general manager role — a position Schoen had also interviewed for.
Ultimately, the Giants went with Schoen over Poles based on his overall experience in the game of football. He was a player who became and intern and then rose through the ranks. Poles, although impressive, didn’t have quite the resume to match.
It’s no guarantee Poles would have agreed to join the Giants in a lesser role, but the organization was certainly prepared to offer him a position. Instead, Poles will now be an NFC opponent of the Giants and Schoen.
