There’s a new leader of the Giants’ college scouting department.
The Giants hired John Ritcher away from the Texans to be their director of college scouting, The Post confirmed on Saturday.
Ritcher held a co-director title in Houston and now will run his own department with the Giants.
The hire was fueled by general manager Joe Schoen, which is significant because it shows that he is still wielding power and influence.
Because Schoen is believed to be working in the final year of his contract and because head coach John Harbaugh is reporting directly to ownership, Schoen’s job status was speculated to be on rocky ground.
Schoen and Ritcher worked together in the Dolphins organization.
Ritcher then spent six seasons with the Cardinals and eight with the Texans.
The Giants have not had a director of college scouting since Schoen took over in 2022 and fired Chris Pettit.
Assistant director of player personnel Dennis Hickey — a former Dolphins general manager — acted as the pseudo-head of the college scouting department with national scouts Marcus Cooper and Jeremy Breit (both longtime employees) at the top of the chain.
Senior vice president of football operations and strategy Dawn Aponte was also with the Dolphins at the same time as Schoen, Hickey and Ritcher.
It is a surprise that Harbaugh has not added anyone with Ravens ties to the front office during his first five months on the job, especially given the franchise’s excellent track record of producing high-level executives.
Perhaps it is proof that Harbaugh was pleased with the inherited scouting department.
“Unified operation,” assistant general manager Brandon Brown said last week. “It’s been really a great environment to be a part of. When I say ‘unified operation,’ coach said something in one of his first meetings that has stuck with me, and he called it ‘mission over men.’ The mission for us is winning football games. Low ego, put your pride aside from the coaching staff, having high-level operators, great teachers to the personnel department, respecting opinions, finding out what’s best for us in terms of finding the right players that are going to help us whenever game day is.”
