FIRST FINALISTS

CHIEFS’ POLES, BILLS’ SCHOEN MAKE ROUND 2 IN GM SEARCH

Joe Schoen was the first of the nine candidates the Giants met with in an all-remote first round of interviews for their all-important vacant general manager position.

Schoen on Tuesday became the first candidate to meet in person with the Giants in the second round of interviews. There may or may not be significance to Schoen batting leadoff not once, but twice.

There is no denying he is a highly regarded NFL front office executive, and those in the know around the league anticipate he will have the opportunity to run a team of his own sooner, rather than later. Schoen, the Bills’ assistant general manager, is a strong option to eventually get hired to fill the most important football role in the Giants organization.

Ryan Poles, at 36 the youngest of the nine initial candidates, also made the second round and will meet with the Giants on Wednesday. Poles is the Chiefs’ executive director of player personnel.

This next round of interviews will all take place at the Giants’ facility. Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, plus Chris Mara, the senior vice president of player personnel, will conduct all the inperson interviews, as they did virtually in the first round. Schoen, during his full day spent with the Giants, also sat down and talked with other members of the front office and received a tour of the team facility.

Schoen and Poles’ teams, the Bills and Chiefs, meet on Sunday in an AFC divisional playoff game in Kansas City. The Giants have not been in the postseason in five years, and they want to hire someone from outside their organization to show them the way back in.

Schoen, 42, does not have any direct connection to the Giants, but in 2008 he was hired by Bill Parcells as a national scout for the Dolphins, and Parcells will no doubt offer a strong recommendation, if asked.

Schoen in Buffalo works closely with GM Brandon Beane, who can certainly be considered a mentor. Schoen in 2000 accepted an internship with the Panthers — in the ticket office — and it was in Carolina where he developed a working relationship with Beane. When Beane in 2017 left to become the general manager in Buffalo, he hired Schoen to be his assistant. Schoen at the time was with the Dolphins as a scout and, eventually, the director of player personnel.

In Buffalo, Beane and Schoen built a roster and turned around the fortunes of a franchise that had not been in the playoffs for 17 consecutive years before their arrival.

The Giants this week will meet those who advanced into the second round — it is unknown if there will be a third candidate interviewed after Schoen and Poles — and hope to have a new general manager in place by the end of the week. Other teams have already begun interviews for their head coaching vacancies, and the Giants, who fired Joe Judge after just two seasons, do not want to fall too far behind. If Schoen gets the job, it is expected he will endorse Brian Daboll, the Bills’ offensive coordinator.

Poles is the definition of a “fast riser.’’ He was an offensive lineman at Boston College — he blocked for Matt Ryan — and in 2008, the year after his playing career ended, he got started as a recruiting director at his alma mater. In 2009, he was hired by the Chiefs as a scout and in the next decade received four promotions. Last year, he was a finalist for the Panthers’ general manager job and in this cycle he has attracted interest from the Bears and Vikings.

During his time in Kansas City, Poles has obviously developed a relationship with Eric Bieniemy, the Chiefs’ 52-year-old offensive coordinator. This does not mean it is guaranteed Poles would push for Bieniemy, though. Perhaps Poles would be inclined to support Brian Flores, another former Boston College player (the two were not in school together). Flores, after his surprising dismissal from the Dolphins, is expected to fill a head-coaching vacancy this cycle.

Poles fulfills the Rooney Rule requirement for the Giants, which states every team must meet with at least one minority candidate in an in-person interview.

The others from the first round of Giants interviews: Ran Carthon (49ers director of player personnel), Adam Peters (49ers assistant general manager), Adrian Wilson (Cardinals vice president of pro personnel), Quentin Harris (Cardinals vice president of player personnel), Ryan Cowden (Titans vice president of player personnel), Monti Ossenfort (Titans director of player personnel) and Joe Hortiz (Ravens director of player personnel). Of that group, Hortiz and Peters are seen by many NFL front office watchers as executives ready to take the next

step forward.