Survey: An overwhelming majority of Giants fans want to replace Shane Bowen

Fans aren’t happy with the status quo

New York Giants fans want some sort of change after their 3-14 finish to the 2024 season.

That much is clear even without a poll. All you had to do was check the skies over MetLife Stadium over the last month of the season to know that there are plenty of Giants fans who aren’t satisfied with the status quo.

Co-owner John Mara made a statement just after the season that both Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll would remain in place for the 2025 season (at least). It has since been reported that the team intends for Mike Kafka and Shane Bowen to remain the offensive and defensive coordinator (respectively).

That, however, doesn’t satisfy the fanbase and the majority of fans want to see some sort of change after one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

This week we asked whether the team should replace Shane Bowen at defensive coordinator and the response was a resounding “YES”.

A full 70% of respondents said that they want to see Bowen replaced.

At this point it seems as though fans will be disappointed and the Giants have made the decision to go forward with Bowen as the defensive coordinator for 2025. This likely suggests that the Giants want to see what Bowen’s defense can do with another year of work and some more players who fit the scheme.

There’s also the matter of the offense.

The Giants fielded one of the least productive offenses in the NFL over the past couple years, and that reached new depths (save Week 17) in 2024. It’s very difficult to play good defense while saddled with an albatross of an offense. Not only is the defense on the field too often, they’re often asked to defend short fields and play from behind. Opposing offenses usually have their full playbook open and are rarely forced out of their initial gameplan.

It’s not really a coincidence that some of the best defenses in the NFL are able to work opposite some of the best offenses. Their offensive production puts pressure on the opposing offense to keep up, forcing them [the opposing offense] to take chances and give the defense opportunities to make plays.

It’s been a long time since the Giants’ defense has enjoyed that kind of privilege.

But it’s also true that the Giants’ defensive personnel was a poor fit for Bowen’s preferred schemes. He tried to adjust his philosophy — calling far more Cover 3 than Cover 4 — and called more blitzes than he previously had.

The Giants did end the season as the only team with three defenders in the Top 30 for High Quality Pressure Rate.

They also showed significant improvement against the run in the second half of the season and only allowed two runners to eclipse the 100-yard mark over their final seven games (Rico Dowdle and Jonathan Taylor).

However, trying to shoehorn a defensive roster built for a pressure defense into one built to play zone coverage didn’t work well overall.

For fans still hoping that Bowen will be replaced, the word “Intends” is carrying a lot of weight. After all, the Giants initially said that they intend for Wink Martindale to remain the Giants defensive coordinator in 2024. It’s still possible that one of the league’s new head coaching hires would ask to interview Bowen and he would be hired away without the Giants having to fire him. That’s the hope of another 14% of the fanbase.

Unless something changes, however, it looks as though the 16% of the fanbase who thinks Bowen wasn’t a problem will get to see him for at least one more season.