EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants fired coach Brian Daboll on Monday after the team blew another double-digit lead Sunday in Chicago.
“The past few seasons have been nothing short of disappointing, and we have not met our expectations for this franchise,” Giants co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch said Monday in a joint statement. “We understand the frustrations of our fans, and we will work to deliver a significantly improved product.”
Assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will serve as the Giants’ interim coach. Kafka was a finalist for multiple head coaching jobs over the past two years.
Joe Schoen will remain the team’s general manager and lead the search for the next head coach.
Daboll’s Giants have sputtered since ’22
The Giants were 9-7-1 in Brian Daboll’s first season in 2022 and made the playoffs. Over the past three seasons they’re 11-33, the second-worst record in the NFL during that span.
TeamRecordTitans10-33Giants11-33Panthers12-32– ESPN Research
“We feel like Joe has assembled a good young nucleus of talent, and we look forward to its development,” Mara said. “Unfortunately, the results over the past three years have not been what any of us want. We take full responsibility for those results and look forward to the kind of success our fans expect.”
Tisch added: “These are difficult decisions, and John and I do not take them lightly, but we feel like this is the right thing to do at this time and will allow us to move forward.”
No other changes to the coaching staff are being made at the moment, sources told ESPN.
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The Giants (2-8) have won just two of their first 10 games for the third straight year. They are 11-33 since the start of the 2023 season.
Daboll was asked Sunday whether he was worried about his job given the team’s record.
“I’m just focused on these guys in the locker room,” he said.
Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart also suffered a concussion in the Giants’ 24-20 loss to the Bears. That was the fourth time Dart has been evaluated for a concussion this year, including the preseason.
Daboll won 2022 Coach of the Year in his first season with the Giants when they surprisingly went 9-7-1 and won a playoff game in Minnesota. Things have fallen apart since even though Daboll was considered to be the driving force behind drafting Dart. The first-round pick has accounted for 17 total touchdowns in his first seven starts.
But the Giants still aren’t winning games, and they’ve been blowing leads in unprecedented fashion this season. New York held double-digit leads in four road games that ended in losses.
Sunday’s loss was the second time this season the Giants lost after leading by at least 10 points with under four minutes remaining. They became just the second team since the NFL merger to do that, joining the 2004 Seattle Seahawks.
Daboll was 20-40-1 as the Giants’ head coach. His .336 winning percentage puts him behind the likes of Ben McAdoo and Ray Perkins.
The hotheaded coach had a rocky four years with the Giants filled with incidents that included an ugly split with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale after the 2023 season and a $100,000 fine earlier this year for approaching the blue medical tent while Dart was being examined for a concussion.
Schoen, at one point along the way, had to monitor the coaching headsets to evaluate the coach’s communication. Daboll also flipped a tablet at former quarterback Daniel Jones and replaced a good chunk of his staff over the past two years.
Daboll and Schoen were brought back after the team went 3-14 last season. But they were eventually put on the hot seat when owner Mara said after the season that he expected better results.
“I’m aware of how many games we’ve won, and obviously the results are not even close to what we want them to be,” Mara said at the time. “They’re going to have to get better if we’re going to move on to Year [5].”
Daboll was hired after serving four years as the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills, where he spearheaded the development of quarterback Josh Allen. Daboll also spent a large part of his career with multiple stints as an assistant under Bill Belichick in New England.
