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Giants retaining coach Brian Daboll, GM Joe Schoen after 3-14 season

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Giants retaining coach Brian Daboll, GM Joe Schoen after 3-14 season

By Charlotte Carroll, RJ Kraft and Jenna West

The New York Giants will bring back coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen for a fourth season, team co-owner John Mara said Monday, opting for continuity after one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

The decision came less than 24 hours after New York ended the season with a 20-13 loss to a Philadelphia Eagles team resting its starters. The defeat dropped the Giants to 3-14 — a franchise record for losses in a season. The Giants endured a 10-game losing streak (also a franchise record) and released starting quarterback Daniel Jones before the season’s end.

Speaking with media Monday, Mara cited New York’s “really productive” 2024 draft class — headlined by receiver Malik Nabers — and the addition of pass rusher Brian Burns via trade as positives for Schoen. He called the process of making personnel decisions “better than I’ve ever seen it before.”

“In Brian Daboll’s case, listen, I’m in practice all the time,” Mara said. “I go to the team meetings, I watch the players, I watch how they react. I still think he’s the right guy.

“If I’m sitting here a year from now and you’re asking me these questions, I’ll take the heat. At the end of the day, we got to make a decision and we made one.”

New York is 18-32-1 (.363) with one playoff appearance in three seasons with Daboll and Schoen as head coach and GM.

With Monday’s decision, Mara doubled down on his stance on Daboll and Schoen after giving the two a vote of confidence in October.

“We are not making changes this season,” Mara said at the time, “and I do not anticipate making any changes in the offseason, either.”

When Mara said that, the Giants were 2-5 and had lost two games in a row. That losing streak carried on through most of the season as the Giants started three different quarterbacks and finished the year with the second-fewest points scored in the NFL.

New York now enters the offseason with the No. 3 pick in April’s draft — and a need to find a quarterback of the future.

The Giants had hoped to make a big splash last offseason in the 2024 draft, looking to move up from No. 6 to acquire one of the top quarterbacks available. But their efforts to move up failed, as Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye were selected 1-2-3. The Giants remained at No. 6, bypassed the other three QBs selected in the first round (Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix) and drafted Nabers, with the hope that pairing Jones with a true No. 1 target would help unlock an offense that finished 30th in points per game in 2023 (15.6).

With that same thought in mind, Daboll also decided to take play-calling duties away from assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and call plays himself. Daboll reportedly took over the role a few times during the 2023 struggles and made the switch official going into this season.

The change didn’t prove fruitful. The offense was worse, scoring just 16.1 points per game, which included a dreadful average of just 13.7 points per game in eight home contests. Unsurprisingly, the Giants finished 1-8 in front of the MetLife Stadium faithful, who consistently booed their team throughout the season.

Things seemed to reach a boiling point after the team’s 20-17 loss to the woeful Panthers in Germany. The Giants benched Jones coming out of the bye week, which upset some of his teammates, and relegated him to fourth string — a sharp downfall for a quarterback who signed a four-year, $160 million contract after helping the Giants to a surprise playoff appearance in 2022.

The quarterback asked Mara for his release, which the team granted. Meanwhile, third-stringer Tommy DeVito was named the starter over Drew Lock, who had been the team’s No. 2 all season.

Hoping for a “spark” with DeVito at the helm, the Giants were instead steamrolled by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-7 in Week 12. Following that defeat, multiple Giants players, including Nabers, ripped the team for being “soft,” and some even called out their teammates for a lack of effort.

Since then, it’s been the noise outside of the locker room that’s gotten louder. At two of the Giants’ final three home games, fans flew airplanes with banners flying behind them imploring ownership to make changes.

“You do the best job you can,” Daboll said Sunday when asked if he was concerned about his future with the team. “Again, I’d say we have good conversations. Three wins, not good enough. So, a lot of work to be done.”

Schoen has come under fire for a series of spotty drafts, an offensive line he hasn’t quite fixed and his failure to reach an extension with star running back Saquon Barkley. The latter decision came under additional scrutiny when the offseason addition of the HBO show “Hard Knocks” shed light on how the decision to let Barkley test free agency and head to the NFC East rival Eagles played out. Barkley went on to rush for over 2,000 yards in his first season in Philadelphia.

The Giants invested in fortifications for their long-maligned offensive line, acquired Burns via a trade with the Carolina Panthers and brought in Lock behind Jones with a one-year, $5 million deal. But New York has not brought in a Pro Bowler during Schoen’s regime. Defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence and Barkley have reached the Pro Bowl in his tenure, but they were acquired by the previous regime.

“In Joe’s case, I think the draft class that we had was really productive,” Mara told reporters Monday. “I think all six of those guys are going to help us a great deal. What the free agency brought in, including Brian Burns, was really a big plus.”

Nabers, a Pro Bowl alternate, does look like a budding star after catching 109 passes in 15 games as a rookie on an otherwise scuffling offense. One year after taking Nabers at No. 6, Schoen will get another chance this offseason to use the No. 3 pick, cap space and additional draft assets to supplement the roster’s other areas of need — wide receiver, defensive tackle, offensive line and the secondary.

“(Daboll and Schoen) deserve a chance to get their quarterback in here, whatever capacity that is, whether that be free agency or the draft,” Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton said Monday after Mara’s decision. “See how that goes and try to build a team around that guy, rally around that guy. So, it’s the decision Mr. Mara made, and it’s a good one.”

Several other Giants players expressed their hopes for improvement in 2025 and supported Mara’s decision to bring back Daboll and Schoen.

Offensive tackle Andrew Thomas said Daboll, “listens to the opinion of players, and I think that makes a big difference,” while offensive lineman Jon Runyan Jr. called Daboll “a fiery coach” who “believes in this offense.”

Linebacker Bobby Okereke said: “I feel like the organization is going in a great direction here. Obviously, not the results we want, but Joe and the front office have done a great job, obviously with this draft class, bringing in some quality free agents, guys who compete.

“And I feel like Dabs is steady. He’s got an aggressive mentality and a great plan for us.”

The Daboll/Schoen era began with promise. In January 2022, New York hired them from the Buffalo Bills, where Daboll had garnered a reputation as a quarterback guru thanks to his work developing Josh Allen while serving as the quarterback’s offensive coordinator.

Most expected the Giants to have to undergo a long rebuild, but Daboll and his staff got off to a hot start, winning seven of their first nine games. The magic faded a bit down the stretch, but Daboll still led the Giants to a 9-7-1 finish and their first playoff victory since Super Bowl XLVI in 2012.

After the win, Mara triumphantly declared, “We’re back.”

It’s been mostly downhill since then. But Monday’s decision indicates Mara still has enough confidence in the “process” to keep the regime together for 2025.

And he’s hoping for a fast improvement.

Said Mara: “Better not take too long, ’cause I’ve just about run out of patience.”

Required reading

(Photo of Brian Daboll: Andy Lewis / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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