Rookie minicamps are wrapping up. Mandatory minicamp is around the corner. And somewhere between now and the first preseason snap in August, the NFL calendar enters that peculiar stretch where the biggest questions don't have answers yet … they just have opinions, projections, and the occasional agent willing to tell you what he really thinks.

This week's Football Friday Mailbag covers a lot of ground.

We dive headfirst into the palace intrigue that could be setting up at 1925 Giants Drive, depending on how the first season with even modest expectations in East Rutherford in quite some time winds up playing out, find out what some of the priorities the NFLPA will try to wrangle from the NFL when negotiations to expand the season to 18 games begin in earnest, and try to make sense of a pretty big gamble with even bigger stakes that is playing out inside the Don Hutson Center, in Green Bay.

As always, keep the questions coming on Threads and BlueSky. The mailbag runs on you.

Let's get after it.

The Giants are one of the teams that I’m particularly bullish on this season, in large part because of the young talent Schoen has accumulated over the past three draft classes, and especially John Harbaugh and Dawn Aponte’s influence over the current trajectory of the franchise’s future.

There’s little doubt, though, that given the lack of results on the field in recent years, combined with Harbaugh and Aponte’s arrivals, Schoen isn’t just sitting on a hot seat, but it is floating on pool of lava ahead of the 2026 campaign kicking off.

Given that Harbaugh reports directly to owner John Mara, rather than Schoen, the general manager, we can surmise between the lines that if Harbaugh believes the organization needs a course correction and can deliver the results to back it up, it may prove difficult for Schoen to survive any turmoil that arises in the months ahead.

As for Aponte, she is one of the more respected figures across the sport, for her efforts in the league office and there is significant optimism that the Giants can quickly turn things around now that she is a significant presence at 1925 Giants Drive, as the Senior Vice President of Football Operations and Strategy.

“Dawn may actually be an equally important, if not a bigger acquisition than Harbaugh,” a prominent agent told Between The Hashmarks, back in March. “Her years of expertise in the front office for teams, and working for the league in their Park Avenue offices is unprecedented.

“At this point, the Giants have the chemistry to make a Super Bowl run every year in the not-so-distant future, at least in our opinion.”

If that’s how folks outside of East Rutherford are viewing Aponte and the Giants, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Mara and Tisch would consider Aponte as a potential replacement for Schoen. Her wealth of experience managing the cap and negotiating contracts would position her well to run a front office.

In addition to Aponte, Giants Assistant General Manager Brandon Brown has to be a top consideration and potential replacement for Schoen.

Brown has been a driving force behind some of the biggest decisions and young players that the Giants have prioritized adding over the past three seasons, and his departure in Philadelphia was one that sent shockwaves through the Eagles’ organization, back in 2022.

In Philadelphia, Brown rapidly climbed the front office ladder, ultimately becoming Howie Roseman’s director of player personnel during his final season of a tenure that included the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory.

Few people carried more influence over personnel decisions in that building than Brown did, and he has become instrumental in the Giants’ roster construction since his arrival in East Rutherford.

Realistically, pushing for a 10-win season is a reasonable expectation for this group this fall.

But, if things go sideways and Schoen is shown the door, his legacy in East Rutherford will be defined by his inability to bring a fifth Lombardi Trophy to the building, leaving the keys to be handed directly to either Aponte’s administrative brilliance or Brown’s elite scouting eye.

The only thing to really say about this Packers offseason broadly, and Green Bay’s overhaul at wide receiver, specifically, is Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur better be right.

After all, the Packers allowed leading receiver Romeo Doubs to walk out the door and sign with the New England Patriots without showing much interest at all in bringing him back to Green Bay.

And, while LaFleur has spoken at length several times this offseason about wanting players in the building who understand and appreciate their role, it’s not difficult to read between the lines that Dontayvion Wicks was one of the players who failed to do either last season, before being traded this spring to the Philadelphia Eagles.