Schoen appointed Giants general manager

The New York Giants on Friday appointed Joe Schoen as general manager at the start of a new era.

Schoen joins the Giants from the Buffalo Bills, where he had been in the role of assistant general manager under Brandon Beane over the last five years.

The 42-year-old succeeds Dave Gettleman, who retired this month without overseeing a single season with a winning record.

Schoen's priority is to appoint a new head coach after Joe Judge was fired on the back of a dismal 4-13 campaign.

He said: "It is an honour to accept the position of general manager of the New York Giants.

"I want to thank John Mara and Steve Tisch [Giants co-owners] and their families for this tremendous opportunity. And obviously I am grateful to Brandon and the Bills for the experience I have had in Buffalo.

"Now, the work begins. My immediate focus is to hire a head coach, with who I will work in lockstep with to create a collaborative environment for our football operations.

"We will cast a wide net, it can be former head coaches, first-time head coaches but, more importantly, it has to be a person who possesses the ability to lead an organisation and the ability to motivate and develop players.

"On the personnel side, we will begin to evaluate our roster and prepare for the draft and free agency. Our goal is to build a roster that will be competitive, have depth, and most importantly, win football games."

Nine candidates were interviewed for the role and Mara says Schoen stood out.

"Steve and I were both impressed with all nine candidates," he said. "We came away from this process feeling like all nine will be a general manager in this league at some point. We just felt like Joe was the right fit at the right time for us."