If you have watched the New York Giants all season, and really for the last three years, nothing that happened in Sunday’s 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears should have been a surprise.
Did you actually think the Giants’ 17-7 third-quarter lead meant they were going to win? After the Giants found a way to blow a 19-0 lead to the Denver Broncos just four weeks ago, becoming the first NFL team with an 18-point lead and less than six minutes to play to lose a game? After the Giants blew double-digit leads to the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints?
Did you actually think the Giants were going to continue to get away with recklessly slamming rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart into opposing defenses without Dart getting hurt? Sooner or later, one of those many visits Dart has made to the medical tent was going to result in the rookie quarterback having his helmet taken away.
So, of course the Giants lost on Sunday. That was inevitable. Turning victories into losses is the thing they do best. Of course Dart got hurt. That, too, was inevitable. If the Giants were going to continue using him like Brandon Jacobs or Jerome Bettis instead of a franchise quarterback they hope to build around, a concussion — or worse — was always going to happen.
The question now isn’t whether Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston should start next Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, though that certainly is a question.
The question is whether Brian Daboll will, or should, be the one charged with making that decision.
Let’s be real. If it wasn’t clear before Sunday that Daboll shouldn’t be, can’t be, won’t be the coach to lead the Giants forward into the Jaxson Dart era, it certainly is clear now.
Does anyone really still believe Daboll is the right coach to both develop Dart and to maximize the Giants’ future with a 22-year-old quarterback who looks like the real deal?
There are a lot of reasons for the Giants to move on from Daboll.
The Giants are 2-8 this season. They are 11-33 (.250 winning percentage) since 2023. The only team with a worse record is the 10-33 Tennessee Titans — the only NFL team to fire its head coach so far this season. The Giants are 20-40-1 (.336) over the entirety of Daboll’s tenure.
The defense, which should be a strength, keeps melting down with the defensive coordinator Daboll hired and has continued to stand by. The Giants keep giving up leads in games it looks like they should win, and Daboll’s decisions always seem to be in the middle of those disasters.
There were 10 more penalties on Sunday as the Giants continued to be one of the league’s most penalized, undisciplined teams. Special teams mistakes. Game day roster management messes.
All of that falls on Daboll.
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Most damning, though, had to be Dart leaving the game after three quarters with a concussion.
The Giants hired Daboll because of his work with quarterbacks; mostly because of his work with Josh Allen as offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills. The hard truth is that his work as a coordinator at a number of stops prior to Buffalo wasn’t all that impressive.
Daboll couldn’t make it work with Daniel Jones, which is what he was actually hired to do. He got one good year out of Jones, using the game plan the Indianapolis Colts are now using with Jones by not asking him to be a hero, relying on the run game, quick throws, using Jones’ legs. Then, after the Giants paid Jones, they decided they wanted more. Jones could not give that, and things fell apart.
Many in NFL circles thought things would get better for Daboll once he got “his guy” at quarterback. Giving Daboll a chance to make it work with his own hand-picked quarterback is the biggest reason the Giants didn’t move on from Daboll after the 3-14 debacle last season.
Daboll pushed his chips to the center of the table with Dart, and GM Joe Schoen made sure Daboll got the guy he thought could do for the Giants what Allen has done for the Bills.
Maybe Dart can. It seems more and more apparent, though, that the Giants are going to have to get him away from Daboll to make that happen.
Daboll’s job right now is to shepherd Dart’s development. To protect him. To do everything he can to make sure nothing happens to a young man who looks like the right guy to lead the Giants on the field for the foreseeable future.
Daboll’s job is not to recklessly expose Dart to beatings week after week in a blatant effort at self preservation. Which, let’s be honest, is what it looks like the head coach has been doing.
Dart went for concussion checks Week 4 against the Chargers and Week 6 against the Eagles. In each of the last two weeks, Dart was unnecessarily in the game taking hits at the end of blowout losses.
Sunday, the injury we have all seen coming from a mile away happened. Most likely it happened near the end of the third quarter when Dart, on a designed run, took a hit, fumbled, then laid motionless on the ground for a moment. He played two plays after that before someone noticed he wasn’t right and the Giants got Russell Wilson into the game.
The last time the Giants were in Chicago, Joe Judge basically fired himself with an 11-minute post-game answer to a question after an embarrassing 29-3 loss. Daboll may have sealed his own fate on Sunday, as well.
I can’t help but think about Daboll allowing the Giants to slam Jones into the Las Vegas Raiders defensive line on a 2023 fourth-and-1 play in Jones’ first game back from the second serious neck injury of his career.
This is what I wrote about Daboll and his usage of Dart on Saturday:
Brian Daboll’s meal ticket to keeping his job as New York Giants head coach is Jaxson Dart. Everybody, Daboll included, knows that.
If Daboll gets an opportunity, like Giants ownership gave him last season, to make a pitch as to why he should be retained as head coach despite yet another losing season, we know how it will go.
Daboll was the guy who pushed for the Giants to draft Dart. There have, in fact, been some reports that Daboll wanted GM Joe Schoen to use the No. 3 overall pick on the quarterback. Daboll will argue that you can’t fully develop a quarterback in one year, and he deserves more time to see what Dart can become. Especially considering the injuries to wide receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo.
Whether those arguments hold any water with ownership, especially if the Giants end up with a third straight double-digit loss season, is anybody’s guess.
One thing, though, should GUARANTEE Daboll gets himself fired. That would be if he gets the prized rookie quarterback badly hurt by continuing to play him at the end of blowout games, especially if he continues to allow designed quarterback runs to be called in those blowout situations.
Maybe Daboll does not get fired today. Giants ownership is famously averse to midseason head coach firings. Maybe Daboll fires defensive coordinator Shane Bowen in what would really amount to a blatant face-saving move that actually might have had an impact if it had been done a few weeks ago.
Maybe Daboll gets to ride out the rest of the season. Would it really be fair to hand the reigns to an interim coach this week when the Giants can’t be sure who their quarterback will be?
One thing I am fairly certain of, though: If the Giants are going to maximize the bright future it looks like Dart might be capable of leading them to, they are going to need a head coach who won’t break the quarterback before he gets a chance to take them there.
