Is Brian Daboll of the Giants really the NFL’s worst returning head coach?

That’s probably too harsh

A new ranking of NFL head coaches is not kind to Brian Daboll of the New York Giants.

Pro Football and Sports Network has Daboll ranked No. 25 among the 32 NFL coaches, and the ranking is even worse than it sounds.

The only coaches ranked below Daboll, entering his fourth season, are the seven head coaches new to their teams this season. Honestly, I have an issue ranking Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots and Pete Carroll of the Las Vegas Raiders with the “new” head coaches. They are not that.

Vrabel and Carroll aside, here is what PFSN said about Daboll:

Brian Daboll’s head coaching tenure with the New York Giants has been a tale of diminishing returns. Following an impressive 9-7-1 debut in 2022, which included a playoff win, expectations skyrocketed. But since then, Daboll has gone just 9-25 over the past two seasons.

New York’s offense has ranked in the bottom three in scoring in each of the last two seasons, and the defense ranked 31st in PFSN’s Defense+ metric in 2024. Though Daboll’s tenure with the Giants hasn’t been long, it’s beginning to seem like his brief early success was more of an outlier than the foundation for something special.

Considering how the Giants have regressed across the board, it’s a bit surprising that Daboll made it through another offseason unscathed. We’ve seen other coaches get canned for less. However, the front office appears to be holding onto hopes that he can find the magic again. It’s fair to question whether or not Daboll should return to a coordinator role, where he thrived in Buffalo.

Valentine’s View

It is hard to argue that there have been diminishing returns in Daboll’s three seasons. The Giants went from 9-7-1 to 6-11 to 3-14, pretty much the definition of diminishing returns.

For what it’s worth, here is PFSN’s list 1-25:

1. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs
2. Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams
3. John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens
4. Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles
5. Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions
6. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers
7. Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers
8. Jim Harbaugh, Los Angeles Chargers
9. Matt LaFleur, Green Bay Packers
10. Sean Payton, Denver Broncos
11. Sean McDermott, Buffalo Bills
12. Kevin O’Connell, Minnesota Vikings
13. Dan Quinn, Washington Commanders
14. Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
15. DeMeco Ryans, Houston Texans
16. Zac Taylor, Cincinnati Bengals
17. Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
18. Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins
19. Mike Macdonald, Seattle Seahawks
20. Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals
21. Shane Steichen, Indianapolis Colts
22. Raheem Morris, Atlanta Falcons
23. Dave Canales, Carolina Panthers
24. Brian Callahan, Tennessee Titans
25. Brian Daboll, New York Giants

Based on recent results, I don’t think you can really start to argue about Daboll’s placement until you get to Macdonald at 19.

I am certainly not going to argue that Daboll is a top 10 coach at this point. He doesn’t have the resume for that. He does, though, have a fairly recent Coach of the Year award, and for me perhaps that means you could even begin to argue he could be as high as No. 18 on the current list, where Mike McDaniel of the Miami Dolphins resides.

Daboll’s future comes down to this — let’s see what he does now that he and the Giants have drafted him a quarterback he had a heavy hand in selecting, and can mold from scratch in the NFL.

Quarterback coach Jordan Palmer, who coaches Josh Allen and thus knows Daboll well, has been waiting for the Giants to get Daboll “his guy.”

“What I really like about this marriage is that I’ve seen in my work with Josh Allen Brian Daboll’s ability to teach,” Palmer said. “Now, Giants fans have their opinion on Brian, whatever it is, and it’s largely tied to win-loss record.

“What doesn’t get seen is his ability to teach. I’m a quarterback coach, but at the end of the day I’m a teacher. I’ve seen Brian Daboll be one of, honestly if not the best at teaching the game.

“I just kind of have felt for a couple years that I can’t wait until Brian can get his guy that he picked, that he brought in. I can’t wait until he can come in and start from scratch with somebody and just teach, because I think he’s one of the best teachers in the game.”

Will riding it out and seeing what Daboll can do now that Jaxson Dart is a Giant and Daniel Jones is in Indianapolis pay dividends for the Giants? Maybe, maybe not.

Remember, though, Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers had three losing seasons sandwiched around a 13-3 record and a Super Bowl berth in his first three seasons. Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals went 6-25-1 in his first two seasons.

So, sometimes patience pays dividends. Will it this time? We could be about to find out.