John Harbaugh's Giants takeover proves Bengals are miles away from NFL elite

Most non-playoff teams like the Cincinnati Bengals don't have much news to get fired up about in late January. Not the case with the New York Giants, who introduced longtime Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh as their new leader at a press conference on Tuesday.

While Joe Burrow languishes on the couch, lamenting how people don't know what a catch is, he and many millions of others are witnessing Harbaugh take the reins of an iconic franchise.

Everything the G-Men did to recruit, woo, and land Harbaugh are textbook examples of lengths the Bengals wouldn't go to in a million years. And it's why Who Dey Nation can't realistically expect anything to change in Cincinnati until the power structure and the brass' actual priorities do.

John Harbaugh press conference with Giants confirms how far behind Bengals are in modern NFL

The Giants aren't a bunch of dummies. They're aware that they've been out of step with the contemporary NFL for quite a while. Mid head coaches have come and gone. Nothing of consequence has really changed since the two Super Bowls won in the Eli Manning era.

Better late than never. Who better to bring in than a Lombardi Trophy holder like John Harbaugh? The man couldn't have been more locked in during his introductory Giants presser.

Despite his 18-season tenure in Baltimore, it's not like Harbaugh ever rested on his laurels, or refused to evolve. You could make the case that no coach evolved more than Harbaugh once the Ravens decided to overhaul their offense to suit superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Playoff choke jobs notwithstanding, Jackson is a smashing success as a two-time league MVP. When offensive coordinator Greg Roman's system became too stale to sustain Lamar's continued progress, Harbaugh pivoted to Todd Monken, which elevated Lamar to previously unknown heights.

When Harbaugh spoke to his longtime mentor, Andy Reid, this bar of the quote was what he took away — and it's a concept the Bengals are almost completely foreign to:

I've said before that the Cincinnati's coaching continuity, juxtaposed with the changes for every other AFC North team, could be beneficial in 2026 in particular. That's not the point, though. The point is, this was the time for the Bengals to signal meaningful change after a 6-11 campaign. They punted.

As for turning around the Giants after three straight losing seasons — also matching Cincinnati with missing the playoffs thrice in a row — Harbaugh has no intentions of sticking to New York's typical status quo.

More than what Harbaugh has accomplished as a coach, it's what he demanded from the Giants that really stands out. And to their credit, they complied.

Harbaugh commanded a $100 million contract that spanned five years. Big Blue paid up. Another element that stands out: Ownership's willingness and desire to win at any cost. Even before Tuesday's presser, The MMQB's Albert Breer reported on that aspect of Harbaugh's decision to join the Giants as it relates to owner John Mara:

"I would say [ownership played] a very big role—that’s probably what got it started...Because you’re at the owners meetings over the years, you get to know John Mara especially. Through the competition committee conversations we’d always have at the combine or the owners meetings, just from a football standpoint, we’d dig deep on all that stuff, and he’s always just a great guy to work with—a classy, wonderful, honest good-natured person. I always felt like we hit it off that way over the years. So I was excited for that, because I had a good feeling about it."

Not that Bengals owner Mike Brown isn't classy, wonderful, or good-natured. Wouldn't exactly call him honest or anywhere near Mara's class as far as maximizing the resources at his disposal.

The Giants are in a different class from the Bengals as far as franchise valuations go to be somewhat fair. They're the third-richest in the NFL compared to Cincinnati, who checks in at 30th out of 32 teams, per CNBC.

Doesn't change the fact that the salary cap is the same for everyone, and the Bengals have plenty of money to do far more than they do. Head coach Zac Taylor's reported annual salary is $4.5 million.

Unlike the Bengals, the Giants actually have a real GM in Joe Schoen. His roster-building efforts are a mixed bag to date, but the G-Men sure have a talented young core, led by QB Jaxson Dart, wideout Malik Nabers, and pass rusher Abdul Carter. Nevertheless, Harbaugh demanded serious say over personnel, and it sounds like Schoen has rolled with that big shift.

Zac Taylor doesn't strike me as someone who'd do what Harbaugh did. Not that you need some power-play power grab, but Taylor gives off more of a "let's not rock the boat" vibe. He wants to appease Brown and nepo-baby personnel chief Duke Tobin as a means of self-preservation.

I don't believe Taylor is a bad coach. Burrow and the offensive players are bought in to what he's selling. It's just frustrating to know that Burrow could be elevated by a truly elite head coach like Harbaugh, yet the Bengals will never shell out the kind of cash the Giants did for one.

...And that's a shame. As is letting Tobin continue to run the show on how to build this Bengals team with the league's smallest scouting department.

Read More: Bengals fans will be livid over news Duke Tobin broke in press conference

Cincinnati has enough cash on hand to hire more scouts, pay a superior head coach, and pay a real GM. None of those things are happening. Meanwhile, Harbaugh and the Giants are lapping the Bengals, as he transfers much of the successful processes he enjoyed in Baltimore to his new team. It should produce big-time results in short order.

Maybe the 2026 season will still be a struggle for the G-Men. Wanna bet on whose organization is better built for long-term success between the Bengals and Giants — without knowing exactly what New York has in Jaxson Dart as a prospective franchise QB?

Nobody wants to bet. It's the Giants by a landslide. Money is a factor, but it's more about the competitive will of the G-Men brain trust to do whatever it takes to seize Super Bowl glory.

Harbaugh personifies all of that. The Bengals feel so far away from that aspirational standard so as to render it as a pie-in-the-sky notion.

Do you, reader, believe Mike Brown, the Blackburns, and Duke Tobin attack every day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind to deliver a Super Bowl to Cincinnati? Because I do not.

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