Changes are coming to the New York Giants, even if they aren’t the ones fans expected

John Mara wants some things to be different in 2025

New York Giants ownership chose to ride with GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll for the 2025 season despite the team finishing 3-14 in 2024 and being 9-25 over the past two seasons.

There will, though, be changes. Probably a healthy number of them. In speaking to reporters on Monday, Mara pretty much laid out the blueprint he expects to be followed this offseason.

Get a quarterback!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the Giants need to address quarterback. The only one on the roster signed for next season is Tommy DeVito, and the Giants are not putting the franchise in his hands.

“That’s obviously the number one issue for us going into this offseason, is to find our quarterback of the future,” Mara said. “Whether that be via the draft or acquiring a veteran, it’s going to be up to them to decide, ultimately.”

Cam Ward of Miami and Shedeur Sanders of Colorado, in whichever order you choose to put them, are considered the top two quarterbacks in the class. The Giants pick No. 3, though, in the 2025 NFL Draft. Like last year when Jayden Daniels and Drake were beyond their reach, the Giants could again be facing a scenario where the players considered the top quarterbacks in the class could be beyond their reach.

The free agent quarterback class is expected to be headlined by Sam Darnold, having the best year of his seven-year career this season with the Minnesota Vikings.

Could the Giants trade with the Vikings for J.J. McCarthy, a quarterback the Giants passed on at No. 6 in the draft a year ago, if Minnesota makes a long-term commitment to Darnold?

Could someone like Jalen Milroe of Alabama or Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss be a Day 2 option in the draft for the Giants?

“The number one thing, certainly, is the quarterback,” Mara said. “I think once you solve the quarterback issue, I think a lot of these other things will improve as well.”

Unfortunately, getting the right one is not easy to do. Every team tries, only a handful succeed.

About that play-calling

Mara did not outright say that Daboll must give up calling the offensive plays in 2025. But, it is pretty clear that is what the co-owner wants his head coach to do.

“I talked to him about do you really believe it’s in our best interests for you to continue calling the plays,” Mara said. “I said I’m not going to demand that you do one thing or the other but are you better off letting somebody else call the plays? That’s a discussion we’re going to continue to have.”

So, yeah, Daboll almost certainly won’t be calling the offensive plays in 2025.

Daboll took that responsibility from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka this past season, and admitted near the end of the year that the results were “not good enough.”

The Giants won just three games and finished 31st in the league in scoring.

The question I have is how involved Daboll will be in the offense. Even when Kafka called plays in 2022 and 2023, the offense was considered to be Daboll’s. Will he cede full control of the offensive scheme to a coordinator?

See ya, Shane!

Shane Bowen was not Daboll’s first choice to replace Wink Martindale as defensive coordinator. The Giants were terrible against the run for most of the season, and Bowen’s scheme did not seem to be a perfect fit for much of the personnel the Giants had acquired to fit Martindale’s blitz-heavy, man-to-man coverage reliant scheme.

“Quite frankly, I didn’t think our defense played very well this year at all,” Mara said. “I know that when you have an offense that performs like that, you’re putting more pressure on your defense. But we need to make improvements there. I’m tired of watching teams go up and down the field on us. So, I think that has to be addressed.”

The Giants need to improve the talent on the defensive line, at cornerback, and at safety. It would be no surprise, though, if the new defensive pieces Schoen acquires this offseason are coached by someone else in 2025.

Two names to watch there:

• Lou Anarumo — Anarumo was fired on Monday after six seasons as defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals. Anarumo is a Staten Island native who is familiar to the Giants. He was Pat Shurmur’s defensive backs coach with the Giants in 2018, and interviewed for the head-coaching job that went to Daboll in 2022.
• Matt Eberflus — Fired as head coach of the Chicago Bears in the middle of the 2024 season, Eberflus was a successful defensive coordinator with the Indianapolis Colts from 2018-2021. In three of Eberflus’s four seasons running the Indianapolis defense, the Colts were a top 10 defense in points allowed. Giants’ linebacker Bobby Okereke was key member of that defense from 2019-2021.

Also significant is that there is an existing working relationship between Eberflus and Daboll. Eberflus was with the Cleveland Browns as linebackers coach in 2009 and 2010 when Daboll was Cleveland’s offensive coordinator.

Other staff changes

Changes in the assistant coaching ranks happen every offseason. There will be some this offseason, with Mara saying those have “got to be his [Daboll’s] decision.”

Maybe not entirely, though.

Already there is interest in Kakfa on the head-coaching circuit, the third consecutive year in which he has drawn interest:

Offensive line

Mara praised Schoen’s work in free agency, with starters Jon Runyan Jr., Jermaine eluemunor and Greg Van Roten added to the line. During a season in which the Giants used 10 different starting offensive line combinations due to injury, the depth was exposed.

“I think we need some more depth in the offensive line,” Mara said.

Schoen has drafted four offensive lineman over his three seasons, with only center John Michael Schmitz looking like a viable player at this point. One wonders if former Giants offensive lineman Chris Snee, hired as a Senior Scout with an emphasis on scouting college offensive linemen, will play a critical role in identifying draft-worthy offensive line prospects.