Giants cut player Brian Daboll set up to fail, providing more evidence that he lacks what it takes to lead New York
The New York Giants are cutting a kicker they set up to fail because of Brian Daboll’s failures
The New York Giants’ 33-32 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 7 was the result of massive defensive and special teams issues.
Irish kicker Jude McAtamney faced harsh criticism after his performance against the Broncos signficantly contributed to the loss. Per Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, the Giants decided to cut McAtamney on Tuesday.
While it’s easy to target McAtamney, we must realize it was Brian Daboll who created a no-win situation.
Don’t blame Jude McAtamney, blame Brian Daboll
After starting kicker Graham Gano suffered an injury earlier in the year, the Giants decided to call upon their international kicker to step up and start. In the four games that he was the Giants’ kicker, he finished two-for-two on field goals and 9-for-12 on extra points.
He unraveled against the Broncos when he missed two crucial extra points. That includes the one on the final Giants touchdown that would have prevented the Broncos from winning on a field goal. Additionally, it was clear that Daboll did not trust McAtamney to attempt a field goal longer than the 31-yarder he hit against the Los Angeles Chargers.
McAtamney was added to the Giants’ roster in 2024 as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program, which is used to develop players from outside the US to grow the sport. In college, McAtamney started at Division II Chowan in North Carolina. He later transferred to Rutgers, where he served as the Scarlet Knights’ kicker in 2022. In 2023, he notably lost the placekicking job to Jai Patel.
The presence of McAtamney on the roster via the practice squad makes plenty of sense. Daboll is taking advantage of the NFL’s incentive to have an extra roster spot for an emergency kicker if the team needs one on a short week. However, the full-time promotion of McAtamney was perplexing, especially after they signed a reliable veteran in Younghoe Koo.
Former Giants kicking legend Lawrence Tynes chimed in after the game, very bluntly stating that McAtamney is not an NFL-caliber kicker.
As a former college long snapper at the Division I level, I agreed with Tynes’ assessment and was really confused as to why the Giants didn’t turn to Koo. One thing I’ve always noticed when evaluating kickers is that if they struggle under pressure and from distance, it doesn’t translate to long-term consistent success. With a career-long of 49 yards at Rutgers and a whole season of not starting in college for his final year, it was apparent he had multiple opportunities and couldn’t establish himself.
I want to be extremely clear here: I am not saying any of this to be critical of McAtamney. The issue is that Daboll should not have set him up to fail like this. Had there been a more deliberate evaluation of the Giants’ kicking situation when Gano got hurt and a more comprehensive deep dive into available options been conducted, McAtamney would not have seen game reps. It felt as though the decision came from a “Well, this should probably be fine” mentality.
This all returns to the same theme I have emphasized since the beginning of the season: Daboll doesn’t have the detail-oriented coaching style needed to produce success. Had that been true, this and the 100 other examples of failure would not have happened.
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