EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — History will show that New York GiantsThe Brian Daboll era will arrive somewhere between the years of Ben McAdoo and Joe Judge, according to the franchise head coach's winning percentage.
Daboll finished with a 20-40-1 (.336) record before becoming fired on Monday. He went 11-33 (.250) over the last two and a half seasons. Only Tennessee Titans it was worse during this period.
“Not good enough,” Daboll said every time his team lost.
This was true for most of his tenure.
Multiple sources have told ESPN over the past four years that there has never been any consistency in Daboll's decision-making. Many players even said that the Giants were too concerned with the narratives and perceptions from outside the building.
Daboll and Giants general manager Joe Schon eventually parted ways, just as owner John Mara said years ago, because they had different jobs. In the same statement that announced Daboll was relieved of his duties on Monday, Sean was put in charge of the upcoming coaching search. Barring any sudden changes late in the season or special demands from a coaching candidate, Sean is expected to lead this team forward.
That's coupled with the constant turnover that has existed over the last 18 months or so, as team sources said the front office believed there was more talent than the club's results were showing. The coaching staff failed to make the most of the talent.
This was reflected in the decision to keep Sean and fire Daboll, despite both having identical win-loss records on their resumes.
“We feel that Joe has assembled a good young core of talent and we look forward to his development,” Mara said in a statement.
It was Daboll and his coaches who failed after blowing four double-digit leads on the road, posting a 2-8 record this season. The final straw came when a 10-point lead was blown with less than four minutes left Sunday in Chicago during a game in which the rookie quarterback Jackson Dart left with an injury.
Dart got a concussion against the Bears, the fourth time in eight preseason games that he was evaluated for a concussion.
It seemed inevitable that this would be the last straw for Daboll, when the prized defender (who he played an important role in compiling) finally took the wrong hit. In this case – a hard hit on a fumble in the third quarter – Dart slowly walked off the field. This comes after Daboll has been asked for weeks about whether he needs to be more judicious in how and when his defender runs the ball. Instead of insisting that Dart should be more careful to limit hard hits, the Giants said publicly, as well as behind closed doors, that they wanted Dart to play his game. They didn't want to dilute the aggressiveness and competitiveness that made him a first-round pick.
“We'll do what we think we need to do,” Daboll said recently about being more careful with Dart running the football.
Daboll needed to win games this year. He was on edge going into last season, when sources believed his job was in jeopardy.
Mara made it clear that the franchise needs to be seen significantly better results if there was a 5th year of study.
“This better not take too long because I’m almost out of patience,” Mara said at the time.
Not long ago, Daboll was praised for the same emotions that led to his downfall. In his first game with Giants in 2022the team won thanks to a last-second missed field goal by the Titans. For the first time, the head coach pumped up running up and down the sideline. It all seemed so refreshing during a successful first season in which he won Coach of the Year and the team won a playoff game, still the only postseason success since Super Bowl XLVI in 2012.
That same fire and emotion will become problematic when things go south. There was a time when he turned the tablet over in defender Daniel Jones. Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale was criticized on the sidelines for expanded entrance and exit from the locker room at halftime after losing to the 2023 team Dallas Cowboys. The constant explosions even led to Sean listening through a headset during games to ensure Daboll communicated effectively with his coaches. Heck, Daboll was even caught on camera early in his tenure, he gave special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey a death glare during a preseason game.
Only this season there were weekly side tiradeshatred-call after push earlier this month and illegally crashed into a blue medical tent while Dart was being examined for a concussion Philadelphia Eagles. The embarrassment cost Daboll $100,000 and the team $250,000.
Mara had to publish a statement condemning Daboll's actions after the Giants' biggest win since Daboll's first season.
One player recently told ESPN that Daboll blew up and threatened to take away assistant coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka's playcall after tight end. Theo Johnson made the game-tying pass on third down against the Eagles.
Meanwhile Daboll already took a playcall from Kafka occasionally during the 2023 season and then permanently in 2024. It didn't go so well that Mara strongly recommended that he give it back to Kafka this season.
Kafka was named interim head coach on Monday.
Discuss solutions – this was a constant during the Daboll era. All of this would probably be viewed in a different light if not for all the other holes in Daboll's program.
In 2024, Daboll pointed the finger at Jones after he fired Martindale and his two top assistants, McGaughey and offensive line coach Bobby Johnson, after his second year at the helm. Daboll dumped defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson and safeties coach Mike Trier after last season, only to watch the secondary struggle even more this year.
None of this affected the win column. Getting rid of the protector people like Jones didn't solve any problems. The losses continue to pile up as Jones recovers and is 8-2 with Indianapolis Colts.
Most importantly, Daboll didn't win enough games in New York. The results speak for themselves. Coaches don't pick the 3-14 score randomly. It's no coincidence that coaches are 2-8 in three straight seasons. Coaches don't go 11-33 over the last two-plus seasons and get fired because of bad luck. The Giants couldn't do much under Daboll.
Several players told ESPN that rumors about the decision to fire Daboll had spread before the team's meeting on Monday at 1 p.m. local time. Some players learned about this during Bible study when the news became public at 12:43 p.m. They weren't surprised, as several players had noticed that Daboll's postgame message the previous day was unusually brief. Looking back, they believed they had accepted their fate.
When the team gathered, Sean and Kafka shared the news. Daboll left before the end of the season.
