Despite finishing with one of the worst records in the 撸先生AV in 2024, the Giants are keeping their head coach and general manager as Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen will return to New York in 2025, co-owner John Mara announced Monday morning.
"Now that our season is over, we felt it necessary to make this statement," Mara wrote. "Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll will continue in their respective roles with the organization. As disappointing as the results of the season have been, Steve (Tisch) and I remain confident in the process that Joe and Brian have implemented and their vision for our team.
"We look forward to the future and achieving the results we all desire."
Daboll's third season with the Giants was his worst, but will not be his last. New York finished with a 3-14 record, cycled through three different starting quarterbacks and despite showing brief glimpses of their potential, the Giants never found solid footing.
Sympathy for Daboll varied depending on the week.
New York decided to bench Daniel Jones and then grant his release in November. Daboll replaced him with Tommy DeVito, and a few weeks later, DeVito struggled so mightily that Tim Boyle ended up taking over for him in the second half in a blowout loss to the Ravens that made the Jones move look even worse.
But New York also rallied around Daboll in recent weeks, including its upset win over the Indianapolis Colts in the team's Week 17 home finale, highlighted by a career day from signal-caller Drew Lock.
After the win, Daboll explained the outcome simply: "I think if you get good quarterback play, you have an opportunity in every game, and if you don't turn the football over and you make critical plays at critical times."
The comment seemed like a veiled shot at the front office, which hasn't exactly equipped Daboll with a potent offense. Their handling of Saquon Barkley -- who ended up fielding a better offer from a division rival, then promptly rushed for 2,000 yards in his first season with the Eagles -- and the lucrative contract given to Jones stand as two negative marks on the r茅sum茅 of general manager Joe Schoen.
Despite incessant calls from Giants fans demanding change, Mara and Tisch are keeping the status quo with the hopes solidifying quarterback will right this ship. The pressure will remain on Daboll and spill onto Schoen, who has a major decision ahead of him that will determine how long they remain employed by the Giants.
Mara told reporters Monday that he made it clear to Daboll and Schoen what the priority will be going into 2025.
"That's obviously the No. 1 issue for us going into this offseason, is to find our quarterback of the future," Mara said, via the team's transcript. "Whether that be via the draft or acquiring a veteran, it's going to be up to them to decide, ultimately."
Mara indicated that Daboll and Schoen's futures are not guaranteed past the following season if, QB or not, the Giants don't improve.
"It better not take too long," Mara said of a Big Blue turnaround, "because I've just about run out of patience."
A veteran assistant with experience in both the 撸先生AV and collegiate ranks, Daboll rose from offensive coordinator to head coaching candidate after overseeing a significant turnaround in Buffalo, coordinating the Bills' offense from a bottom third unit in 2018 and 2019 -- a span in which they finished as low as 30th in total yards per game -- to a top five outfit in 2020 and 2021. The improvement coincided with Josh Allen's blossoming into a superstar quarterback, and New York sought the same outcome for Daniel Jones when it hired Daboll as coach in 2022.
Initially, the results fit the vision. Daboll directed the 2022 Giants to a surprise playoff appearance and even more shocking postseason road win over the Vikings during Wild Card Weekend, setting up a promising future.
Even then, though, the numbers suggested the Giants' 2022 success was likely to be an outlier, not a sign of things to come. Jones posted a career-best 3,205 passing yards and a 67.2 completion percentage that stood as the best mark in his first four years in the 撸先生AV, yet he only tossed 15 touchdowns. He added another seven scores on the ground to go along with 708 rushing yards, but it seemed as if that might be his ceiling with these Giants, if not outright unsustainable.
Eventually, that sentiment proved to be true. Jones' 2023 season was limited by injuries to just six games, and with pressure mounting on the Giants after a disappointing 6-11 finish in 2023, Jones was given a shorter leash before a disappointing 2024 season ended in his November release from the team.
If anything, that magical 2022 season was an example of how Daboll can extract the best from his team. That sentiment might have saved Daboll's job after the 2024 season.
He'll be expected to do the same with their next chosen signal-caller, who will likely come via first-round pick in April's draft, but might also include a veteran bridge option. And he'll be asked to deliver with a much shorter runway.
Duplicating the Giants' 2024 showing will almost certainly cost Daboll his job before or by the end of the 2025 season.
