Schefter: ‘Anything’s possible’ with Brian Daboll, New York Giants

Daboll’s return not guaranteed despite John Mara’s recent plea for patience

NFL insider Adam Schefter isn’t sure that New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll will survive a second straight miserable season. Schefter said Monday on the Pat McAfee Show that “anything’s possible” with the Giants.

“I don’t know that anybody can say that anybody’s safe in New York. I don’t know that anybody can say that anybody’s safe when you’re on track to have the No. 1 overall pick in the draft,” Schefter said.

“We’ll give him [Giants co-owner John Mara] the benefit of the doubt, we’ll say he’s not making any changes, we don’t expect anything in season, but I think that they’re going to be looking at everything and I think anything’s possible there.”

Valentine’s View

Schefter, of course, was wrong that the Giants have the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. They have the No. 2 pick. They could, obviously, end up with the No. 1 overall pick but as of Week 10 that is not the case.

Anyway, the major point is in regards to Daboll’s future as the team’s head coach — and perhaps Joe Schoen’s as the GM.

Here is what Mara said less than a month ago, when the Giants were 2-5:

“Obviously, we’re all very disappointed with where we are right now,” Mara said. “But I’m going to say one thing, we are not making any changes this season, and I do not anticipate making any changes in the offseason, either.”

If you know your recent Giants history, you know that Mara said something similar about Ben McAdoo during a poor 2017 season. Neither McAdoo nor GM Jerry Reese made it to the end of that season. You know that in 2021 Mara supported coach Joe Judge and said he was the right guy for the job right up until a couple of weeks before Mara fired him.

So, neither Daboll not Schoen should be comforted by the vote of confidence.

Over the last decade, we have become used to the Giants starting seasons like this. They have gotten to the 10-game mark with three or fewer victories in seven of the last eight seasons.

We know we have also been fooled into thinking progress was being made by late-season surges in several of those years.

Mara and Steve Tisch can’t be fooled by that this time. I am still of the belief that replacing Daboll and Schoen is not the right thing to do, but the seven-week post-by stretch is critical for their futures.

What kind of attitude do the players show the rest of the way? Does it become apparent they are tuning out the coach? Do we see more effort-related issues from Deonte Banks, or obvious ‘business decisions’ by other players? Do we see increases instances of the embarrassing lack of discipline showed Sunday by Ihmir Smith-Marsette when he got two dead-ball 15-yard penalties on one play? Do we see and hear finger-pointing from the locker room?

Or, do we see the Giants continue to grind and give effort? Do we see them stick together despite the season having gone off the rails?

That will all matter.

When you have coached a team to an 8-19 record over two seasons and a 10-24-1 record since a 7-2 start in 2022, as Daboll has, nothing about your future is guaranteed.