The case for and against retaining Brian Daboll

[MightyGiants]

I will lay out the case for both keeping and firing Brian Daboll


The case for keeping him:

1)  Continuity-  The Giants have gone far too long with rotation at head coach. The rotation tends to leave a lot of players ill-suited for the new coach's schemes

2)  Daboll hasn't had his "own QB"-  Brian Daboll was never given a chance to draft and develop his own quarterback.  Part of why Daboll was hired was the work he did with Josh Allen in Buffalo

3)  The talent levels on the roster are terrible-  Is there a head coach in the league who has had less to work with than Brian Daboll?

4)  This is Brian's first time as head coach-  Becoming a new head coach comes with a learning curve and lessons have been learned, and he will continue to improve

5)  Coach of the year and playoff victory in year one-  In year one of three, Daboll was considered the best coach and took a losing program and got them to the playoffs and even won a game

6)  Despite back-to-back double-digit losing seasons, players haven't quit on him-  Being out of it by Halloween, it would be easy for players to pack it in.  As of today, the players are still playing hard for the head coach.

7)  Blame Bowen for the terrible defense-  This team has talent on the defensive side of the ball that hasn't lived up to its potential.  It may just take replacing him to fix the team's biggest issue


Case against keeping Brian Daboll:


1)  Back-to-back double-digit losing seasons- It's not a good look for any coach to lose this many games.

2)  Players do better when they leave the Giants- Barkley, Love, McKinney, Williams, Engram, and others have done better when they leave the team.  That brings to question player development and utilization

3)  Discord in the coaching ranks-  Fire too many assistant coaches have left and quit over the two and half years.  Building a quality coaching staff is an important role of the head coach.  There have also been complaints by the coaches who have left and reports of dissatisfaction within the building.

4)  Way too many mistakes-  From excessive penalties to dropped passes to missed tackles, the team does not play like a well-coached team that is paying attention to details.

5) Questionable team preparation-  While Daboll seems to have addressed this issue, last year, Daboll ran a country club time training camp that left his team ill-prepared for the start of the season.

6)  Some questionable coaching decisions-  For all the good press of Tracy, he wasn't high on Daboll's list.  Only injuries gave him a chance to shine.  Having Adoree Jackson return punts was another questionable decision.  Some of the decisions on who to start and wear on the O-lines (along with excessive rotation in camp). 

7)  Daboll can only point to two years with the Bills-  Daboll's only real success as an offensive guru is from his 3rd and 4th year with the Bills.  Other than that, his offenses have struggled.  Some even argue that Josh Allen's development can be attributed more to Allen's personal QB coach than Daboll.

8)  Daboll fails to keep his cool under fire-  Good coaches keep themselves in check when it's important to do so.  Daboll will get too worked up during games to the point where he even admitted once he couldn't think straight.

9) After a strong first season, Daniel Jones got worse rather than better/. Less than ideal and not an indicator of good coaching



Is there anything you would add to either side?

[Brooklyn Dave]

Not even trying to see if Evan Neal could be a starting guard in pre season and training camp.

Having Drew Lock sit on the bench every game as the backup QB ready to play if Jones got hurt and having Tommy DaVito as the emergency QB every game which means he could not enter the game unless both Jones and Lock got hurt , yet when they released Jones, who does he start at QB, but his emergency QB not his back up QB who was ready every game to step in.

Knowing Gano was having hamstring issues in the first Commander game and not having another place kicker on the active roster when Gano got hurt , lost us the game .

[T200]

Overall, it's a good list, Rich.

The ones I question are:

2)  Players do better when they leave the Giants- Barkley, Love, McKinney, Williams, Engram, and others have done better when they leave the team.  That brings to question player development and utilization

I do agree that some of it is player development. But sometimes a player just isn't a fit for the scheme the coordinator wants to run. While a player may be good in one scheme, he may not be a fit for another. Ultimately it's on the coordinator, not the head coach, what schemes he wants to use.

3)  Discord in the coaching ranks-  Fire too many assistant coaches have left and quit over the two and half years.  Building a quality coaching staff is an important role of the head coach.  There have also been complaints by the coaches who have left and reports of dissatisfaction within the building.

To my knowledge, it was only last offseason that there was a change in the coaching staff. I'm not aware of any between his first and second seasons. If the head coach decides to let some of the staff go, I don't see that as a bad thing. He obviously recognized something wasn't to his liking and made changes. I don't consider that a reason to not bring him back.

6)  Some questionable coaching decisions-  For all the good press of Tracy, he wasn't high on Daboll's list.  Only injuries gave him a chance to shine.  Having Adoree Jackson return punts was another questionable decision.  Some of the decisions on who to start and wear on the O-lines (along with excessive rotation in camp).

Good press does not equate to good play. Singletary was brought in to be the lead back coming off of solid seasons in Houston. There was no indication that Tracy could possibly outplay him. Additionally, the plan was to have more of a RBC run game. Three of the OL were new and the line coach was new, along with JMS coming back. They had to see what combinations worked best.

8)  Daboll fails to keep his cool under fire-  Good coaches keep themselves in check when it's important to do so.  Daboll will get too worked up during games to the point where he even admitted once he couldn't think straight.

His outbursts were from last year. He's clearly made positive adjustments to how he handles himself on the sidelines. Being demonstrably upset because of a bad play or call/non-call isn't uncommon among coaches. I definitely don't hold that against him to say he shouldn't be the coach next year.

9) After a strong first season, Daniel Jones got worse rather than better/. Less than ideal and not an indicator of good coaching

Jones was coming off of rehab after missing more than half of last season. To expect him to play to his 2022 levels is highly unreasonable and can't be attributed to coaching.

I would add in the "against" column, taking over OC duties. The play calling was not improved and the overall team management fell off.

As a Daboll supporter, I will say that my support of him is probably at 65-70% to bring him back. If I'm Schoen, I'm demanding he either turn the OC duties back over to Kafka and have him on the sidelines, or hire a new OC and let Kafka go.

I know this would never happen but I would be open to the idea of promoting Kafka to HC and demoting Daboll to OC.

[MrGap92]

Wasn't Engram gone before Daboll and Schoen arrived?

[Ed Vette]

The case for keeping him:

1)  Continuity-  The Giants have gone far too long with rotation at head coach. The rotation tends to leave a lot of players ill-suited for the new coach's schemes

2)  Daboll hasn't had his "own QB"-  Brian Daboll was never given a chance to draft and develop his own quarterback.  Part of why Daboll was hired was the work he did with Josh Allen in Buffalo

3)  The talent levels on the roster are terrible-  Is there a head coach in the league who has had less to work with than Brian Daboll?

4)  This is Brian's first time as head coach-  Becoming a new head coach comes with a learning curve and lessons have been learned, and he will continue to improve

5)  Coach of the year and playoff victory in year one-  In year one of three, Daboll was considered the best coach and took a losing program and got them to the playoffs and even won a game

6)  Despite back-to-back double-digit losing seasons, players haven't quit on him-  Being out of it by Halloween, it would be easy for players to pack it in.  As of today, the players are still playing hard for the head coach.

7)  Blame Bowen for the terrible defense-  This team has talent on the defensive side of the ball that hasn't lived up to its potential.  It may just take replacing him to fix the team's biggest issue

5) He's a lovable character.


Case against keeping Brian Daboll:


1)  Back-to-back double-digit losing seasons- It's not a good look for any coach to lose this many games.

2)  Players do better when they leave the Giants- Barkley, Love, McKinney, Williams, Engram, and others have done better when they leave the team.  That brings to question player development and utilization

3)  Discord in the coaching ranks-  Fire too many assistant coaches have left and quit over the two and half years.  Building a quality coaching staff is an important role of the head coach.  There have also been complaints by the coaches who have left and reports of dissatisfaction within the building.

4)  Way too many mistakes-  From excessive penalties to dropped passes to missed tackles, the team does not play like a well-coached team that is paying attention to details.

5) Questionable team preparation-  While Daboll seems to have addressed this issue, last year, Daboll ran a country club time training camp that left his team ill-prepared for the start of the season.

6)  Some questionable coaching decisions-  For all the good press of Tracy, he wasn't high on Daboll's list.  Only injuries gave him a chance to shine.  Having Adoree Jackson return punts was another questionable decision.  Some of the decisions on who to start and wear on the O-lines (along with excessive rotation in camp). 

7)  Daboll can only point to two years with the Bills-  Daboll's only real success as an offensive guru is from his 3rd and 4th year with the Bills.  Other than that, his offenses have struggled.  Some even argue that Josh Allen's development can be attributed more to Allen's personal QB coach than Daboll.

8)  Daboll fails to keep his cool under fire-  Good coaches keep themselves in check when it's important to do so.  Daboll will get too worked up during games to the point where he even admitted once he couldn't think straight.

9) After a strong first season, Daniel Jones got worse rather than better/. Less than ideal and not an indicator of good coaching

10) Can't speak French

[LennG]

9) After a strong first season, Daniel Jones got worse rather than better/. Less than ideal and not an indicator of good coaching

So it is Daboll's fault that Jones was horrible. Sorry, but Daboll should get all the credit in the world for helping Jones get a contract that he really didn't deserve. He used smoke, mirrors, and anything else, to try and make Jones into a real NFL QB, but once the defensive coordinators saw what Daboll was doing and knowing what Jones couldn't do, they adjusted and Jones was shown to be just a poor a QB candidate. Yet, now it's Daboll's fault he can't spin gold out of pure junk. It's really amazing how someone can spin this into it being Daboll's fault Jones was such a lousy QB.
GEEZ

[LennG]

Forget all the plus's and minus's, they are just in the eye of the beholder.

The real plus is that Daboll needs to prove he can be a legit HC after he gets an NFL-quality QB. Then and only then, can you judge him as a legit HC. He has been saddled with a pee-wee version of an NFL QB and he has tried. Yes, he is learning on the fly and hopefully, he learns from his mistakes. We all must learn from past mistakes.
As Patti Traina said, as Art Stapleton has said, and as many others have also stated, Daboll deserves another year to prove if he is really HC material.

I am not thrilled with some of his moves and if BB came a knocking, I would hire him in a minute. it is not every day you can have the GOAT as coach of your team. But if that doesn't happen, Daboll deserves a legit year with a legit QB, and that is the biggest positive of them all.