After going 9-7-1 last season and winning a playoff game, no one could have foreseen how horrendous the 2023 season has been for the New York Giants.
They’re 2-7, have scored the fewest points in the NFL (101), and have the worst point differential in the league (-116). To put it simply, the team has been putrid.
With Tommy DeVito now at quarterback for the foreseeable future, Daniel Jones out for the year and Tyrod Taylor on IR, the team stands a chance of setting the franchise record for most losses in a season.
The sudden downfall in the team’s fortunes lies heavily on the shoulders of head coach Brian Daboll. Last season the rookie head coach made bold decisions and calculated risks that helped the team overachieve, earning him NFL Coach of the Year honors.
This season, he has not had his team prepared to compete and has made some head-scratching decisions. In addition, he’s seemed to have lost his bold tendencies as he’s played not to lose instead of playing to win which cost them a chance at victory in Week 8 against the Jets.
If the team continues to be embarrassed over the final eight games of the season, many feel he will suffer the same fate that Ben McAdoo experienced in 2017 when he was relieved of his duties after guiding the team to the playoffs the previous season.
Some fans may not like it, but Daboll will be the coach for the Giants at the start of the 2024 season. Here are three reasons why.
Related: New York Giants standing in Sportsnaut’s NFL power rankings
The rash of injuries to key offensive players
Injuries are part of the game, and some teams have been able to overcome injuries this season and still put a competitive squad on the field. But no team has suffered as many injuries to key players as New York has this season.
The team’s top four offensive players, Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Andrew Thomas, and Darren Waller have all missed significant time due to injuries. In fact, these four have only been on the field together fully healthy on the first offensive drive of the season against the Cowboys. For what it’s worth, that drive looked promising until a Graham Gano field goal attempt was blocked.
One of the reasons there was optimism coming into this season, was to see what the offense could do in year two of Daboll’s and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka’s offense. To be fair, with the exception of a few minutes, we’ve never seen the offense at full strength this year.
In addition to Thomas, the offensive line has been ravaged with injuries, including John Michael Schmitz Jr. and Evan Neal.
Ownership is certainly frustrated with how the season has played out. But before they part ways with another head coach after two seasons, they want to give him another chance to see what he can do with a healthy core of offensive players.
Brian Daboll has a history of being able to groom young quarterbacks
The way things are unfolding, New York could have a top-three pick in the NFL Draft, which means they’ll be in a position to either draft USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, or any quarterback that’s high on their draft board.
Any time you acquire a rookie quarterback, it’s imperative that they have an offensive-minded coach guiding them. The success with young quarterbacks was one of the reasons the Giants hired Brian Daboll to be their coach.
He helped Daniel Jones have the finest season of his career in 2022. And during his time as Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator from 2018-2021, he helped turn Josh Allen into one of the best quarterbacks in the league. With Daboll by his side, Allen had the best season of his career in 2020 when he threw a career-high 37 touchdowns and had a career-high QBR (76.6).
Prior to his time in Buffalo, he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama in 2017 where he mentored Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa.
If the New York Giants take a quarterback with their first pick in the draft, that player will be under tremendous pressure as they will be viewed as the savior of the franchise. With the weight of the franchise on that quarterback’s shoulders, you want an experienced coach who’s had success guiding quarterbacks, and Daboll fits that mold.
Daboll and Schoen are tied together with New York Giants
When New York named Joe Schoen their general manager in January of 2022, it only took him a week to hire Daboll as head coach. These two worked together in the Bills organization for four years with Schoen as the assistant general manager, and as we mentioned Daboll was their offensive coordinator.
They helped transform the Bills from a 6-10 team in 2018, to three consecutive playoff appearances, including a trip to the AFC Championship game in 2020.
As massive of a disappointment this season has been, Daboll is Schoen’s guy and you can bet the 44-year-old general manager, still believes in the 48-year-old head coach. It’s hard to envision Schoen parting ways with Daboll after one horrendous year after the previous success they had.
Plus since they were hired a week apart, Schoen and Daboll are essentially a package deal, and it’s hard to see a scenario where ownership would fire a head coach and GM after two years. As bad as it may get from now until the end of the season, ownership should know at this point to turn the franchise’s fortunes around, they have to give this current regime at least three years to do it.
So while Daboll might be forced to make some changes to his coaching staff, his job should be safe until the start of the 2024 season.