This one is hard to go along with
Brian Daboll nearly lost his job as head coach of the New York Giants after a 3-14 2024 season. Apparently, ESPN’s Ben Solak thinks that would have been a good idea.
In a ranking of all 32 NFL head coach/offensive and defensive coordinator combinations, Solak has the Daboll, Mike Kafka, Shane Bowen troika ranked last in the league. Yup. Last. Behind every team in the league that has a rookie head coach.
Ouch!
Solak insulted the Giants’ braintrust with this zinger:
I don’t really think any team has the 31st-best coaching staff in football (32nd I feel pretty good about). I just can’t submit several consecutive “tied for 20th” rankings.
Here are Solak’s full remarks about the Giants:
While the offensive brain trust of Daboll and Kafka has yet to string together multiple seasons of above-average offense, there are pockets of innovation. It’s not much to hang a hat on, but if and when we see Jaxson Dart this season at quarterback, I expect the team to have some smart, easy ways to get him into a rhythm and involved in the running game. I can at least see the visions in New York, even if the plane often struggles to get off the ground.
I have a warmer appreciation for Bowen, who is always willing to get creative with alignment and coverages to solve personnel problems on the back end. The 2024 Giants’ defense was definitely poor, but they have overhauled the secondary and added to the pass rush this offseason, so I’m happy reserving a stronger judgment for Year 2.
As it is, the best defensive season for Bowen was with the 2022 Titans, which was just above a league-average unit. Of course, Daboll’s best seasons came with the much-improved Josh Allen at the helm in Buffalo — otherwise, his best work was the 2022 season with Daniel Jones, which was also a league-average unit. And again, critically, was not sustained, developed or iterated on. It’s tough to believe in a high ceiling with the Giants’ current staff.
Valentine’s View
First of all, I hate any ranking like this that lists rookie coaches or staff that have never been in their jobs before above those who have done. There is zero proof of concept, good or bad, so how can you say a coach or staff that has never run an NFL game is better than one that has?
Secondly, I know the Giants are easy to pick on after going 9-25 the last two seasons, and I know the offense was atrocious in both of those two seasons.
Still, Daboll did win Coach of the Year in 2022 when he and his staff were widely lauded for getting a team to the playoffs and winning a game when most figured the year would be something akin to, oh, 3-14.
I have my disagreements with Daboll, but I can’t agree that he tops the worst staff in the league.
Kafka has been a hot name on the head-coaching circuit for three years, and has coached at both the East-West Shrine and Senior Bowls. Granted, he has not gotten a head-coaching job, but if he wasn’t highly thought of he wouldn’t be getting annual interviews.
Solak was also complementary toward Bowen, something that I am guessing surprised some Giants fans.
With all of that to consider, it’s hard for me to believe Solak can “feel pretty good” about putting the Giants at the bottom of this list.
