The Giants finally fired Brian Daboll — and it’s obvious why he failed as head coach
Daboll is out after the Giants blew another lead and dropped to 2-8.
The New York Giants finally fired head coach Brian Daboll after an atrocious 2025 season. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Daboll was relieved of his duties Monday, and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will take over as the interim head coach. The firing comes after a 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears, in which the Giants led 20-10 in the fourth quarter.
Why Brian Daboll was fired
Daboll’s tenure with the Giants started extremely hot, taking the Giants to the playoffs with a 9-7-1 record in 2022. Things slowly crumbled as he finished with a 20-40-1 record as the coach in New York. The team’s current 2-8 season was the epitome of why it was in disarray, as it was 0-4 on the road when leading by 10 or more points.
We can pinpoint numerous reasons why he should have been fired, and why he wasn’t the right man to lead the Giants. The first, most glaring reason was his unwillingness to fire defensive coordinator Shane Bowen or to take play-calling duties away from him. This season, the defense ranked 29th in yards allowed and 27th in points allowed per game despite having a talented core.
Daboll was consistently stubborn about addressing the defensive issues, as they were clearly holding the team back. This season alone, New York has had two horrendous collapses, the result of atrocious play-calling by Bowen against the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos.
The second, more general issue was the team’s overall lack of attention to detail. Over the last few seasons, particularly this year, the Giants have been plagued by problems that a well-coached team would not have tolerated. Penalties consistently derailed games, and drives were often extended by poor tackling. This season, the Giants are 27th in penalties per game, with no signs of improvement.
There was no better example of Daboll’s struggles with the little things than his failure to handle the kicking situation. With Graham Gano constantly hurt, the Giants chose to hang onto him and opted to rely on a kicker who was unqualified to kick in games. Daboll set Jude McAtamney up to fail by allowing him to kick in games, and he ultimately factored into the team’s loss to the Broncos.
The most important aspect of the decision to fire Daboll is that the Giants’ ownership did not allow for the emergence of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart to distract from the calamitous mess that is this team. There was a growing narrative among fans that separating Daboll from “his guy” would be disastrous, stunting his growth.
While it was easy to say that Dart’s hot start was due to Daboll’s influence, the opposite was true. The reality was that Dart was succeeding despite Daboll’s ineptitude. Despite the rare situation of having a star rookie quarterback, Daboll kept losing games.
The priority for the next coach must be finding someone with a clear vision to build a foundation around Dart. If they handle the hire correctly, they could be positioned similarly to how the Chicago Bears are in Ben Johnson’s first year.
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