Perhaps the Dolphins just gave the Giants more of an edge in the John Harbaugh sweepstakes.
Miami is “finalizing” a deal to hire Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan as general manager, according to ESPN — passing on Chad Alexander, one of their other candidates, and his ties to the former Ravens coach stunningly fired earlier this week after 18 seasons.
While Sullivan could certainly still bring Harbaugh to Miami, it becomes the latest layer to a wrinkle-filled coaching carousel that’s still in its earliest stages.
Interim general manager Champ Kelly — who replaced Chris Grier when he was fired in October — and Josh Williams were the other candidates the Dolphins brought in for in-person interviews this week.
There had been speculation that the Dolphins could potentially have an edge to land Harbaugh if they hired Alexander, who worked with him in Baltimore from 2008-18 while winning a Super Bowl together.
Alexander would have represented a hand-picked general manager favored by the new coach, compared to inheriting a top personnel executive like he would wit the Giants and others.
The Giants, according to The Post’s Paul Schwartz, want in on the Harbaugh chase, and they’ve already interviewed former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski for their vacancy in addition to having other interviews lined up, too.
They held a virtual interview with Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and had Raheem Morris at the facility for an in-person interview, and they’ll host Antonio Pierce for an in-person interview Friday — after dining with Big Blue Thursday night — to continue the search for Brian Daboll’s replacement.
Harbaugh instantly became an option for that list when the Ravens lost to the Steelers on Sunday and he was fired, but when the Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel despite five wins in eight games to close a disappointing year, that opened another job for the Giants to compete with.
ESPN’s Jeff Darlington reported that McDaniel’s firing was “independent of” Harbaugh getting canned in Baltimore — and instead a result of McDaniel’s meeting with owner Stephen Ross on Tuesday.
“Ultimately, [Ross] just walked away from it feeling like it wasn’t the right decision to keep [McDaniel],” Darlington said during an ESPN segment. “He used the term status quo, wanting to avoid status quo. Now I am told Mike McDaniel was certainly surprised by this news, but ultimately, the Dolphins decided that they were both going to hire a new general manager and a new head coach.”
Darlington also added in an X post that the Dolphins are “prioritizing” their general manager hire over the coaching vacancy, and they understood that their GM — now Sullivan, who’d been with the Packers in various roles since 2003 — might not lead to a match with Harbaugh.
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