Brian Burns has been through this midseason head-coaching change scenario before. A ridiculous four times in his seven-year career, in fact.
- 2019: Ron Rivera (5-7) | Perry Fewell (0-4)
- 2022: Matt Rhule (1-4) | Steve Wilks (6-6)
- 2023: Frank Reich (1-10) | Chris Tabor (1-5)
- 2025: Brian Daboll (2-8) | Mike Kafka (?)
Burns’ voice carries weight in the locker room, and has since GM Joe Schoen traded for prior to the 2024 season. As the defense’s best player this season, and a whose professionalism has made him a clear leader, what was Burns’ message to his teammates?
“I hope the guys would stick together, come together, come even closer,” Burns said on Wednesday. “I kind of just told them that in situations like this, everybody’s under evaluation. Even though this is happening, nobody’s going to turn on the film and be like, oh, this was after Daboll got fired, that’s why he’s playing this way. Nobody cares.
“So, I just told them, if there was ever a time to play your best ball, if there was ever a time to bond together, stick together, it’s now.”
Burns wasn’t having any of the “should Daboll have been fired?” debate. Asked that directly, his response was:
“Anybody else got something to say?”
Burns has obviously seen situations where a midseason coaching change helped a team, and situations where it made no difference in the on-field results.
“It’s all in how the team responds. I think that’s the main thing,” Burns said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily the coaching change that makes something work. It’s just how the team responds.”
Burns said he has seen situations where players respond the right way, and where they have not.
“You don’t want that,” he said.
“I’m just going to kind of lead by example, lead from the front, just call guys up to the stand and pull guys along with me. Because like I said, I’ve been through this. I know how it should look and how it should go.”
Wide receiver Darius Slayton, along with Dexter Lawrence one of the two longest-tenured Giants, called the week “a whirlwind.”
“Unfortunately in this league when you don’t win, things like that happen,” Slayton said. “Obviously, I wish Dabs the best. I’ve been here a time or two in my career, it’s kind of the repercussions of not winning.”
Slayton has seen Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge and now Daboll come and go as head coach since he was selected in Round 5 of the 2019 NFL Draft. This, though, is the first time he has experienced a midseason coaching change.
“It was definitely a shock,” Slayton said. “I mean, obviously people write about it and all that, but in here, as long as people are showing up to work and you’re showing up to work, you assume they’re going to be here. We never assume that somebody’s going to be gone, so it definitely was a shock to us as players. But at the same time, we also understand the business and how it goes.”
Slayton’s message to his teammates is similar to Burns’s.
“I mean, the human nature in them would be, we have two wins through 10 weeks, we have seven weeks left. Some people would pack it in, say the head coach got fired, whatever,” Slayton said. “But the reality of this league is that with change comes change, and you don’t know whether or not you will or will not be a part of those changes.
“So, it would behoove you as an individual to do your best over these seven weeks and give your best effort and try to get some wins on the board in order to try to keep yourself in the Giants uniform. That’s mostly what I would tell guys is like now is definitely not the time to relax, we need to go out there and try to put our best foot forward.”
Tight end Daniel Bellinger said that “stay together” is the most important thing for the players right now.
“The last thing you want is everybody to go off in their corner and break off in little groups,” Bellinger said. “You can’t have that. You want guys to stay together, play together, have fun. Just win at the end of the day is our goal. We can’t do that if we’re all separated. Stay together, stay as a team and we’ll win as a team.”
Wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said it was “tough” to see Daboll let go.
“He’s the one that drafted me and got me up here,” Robinson said. “Tough situation.
“Whenever you’re losing games definitely you feel like it’s your fault. What could I have done better just to make this situation not happen? Now, obviously we’ve got to move on and continue to try to win games.
“At the end of the day it’s a business. We all have a job to do.”
“On a personal level you want to say just one more play, one more catch, one more block, one more win, maybe this doesn’t happen,” tight end Daniel Bellinger said. “At the end of the day you can’t change anything. You can’t go back, you an’t change any games, you can’t change any plays. What’s happened has happened.
“We can’t change this. This was higher-ups decision. All we can do is put the best product that we can on the field and that’s where our focus has to be.”
Robinson knows that with seven games left the Giants can still take some positives from the season.
“We obviously know that we’re not a bad football team,” Robinson said. “We just need to learn how to finish football games and play 60 minutes and not 50 minutes … Just want to get some wins on the board.”
Offensive players are optimistic that Kafka can handle the head-coaching job.
“I think he can,” said Robinson. “He’s been around us for three, four years now. I think he knows how we operate, he has his own way of thinking how this team needs to operate. Looking forward to playing for him.”
Robinson said Kafka told the team to “just go out there and let it rip.”
“I think he’s going to be very open to listening to us and maybe doing things a little differently,” Robinson said.
Kafka has shown little personality in his time working for Daboll, allowing the head coach to set the tone. Bellinger said there are “absolutely” sides to Kafka’s personality that will show up now that he is leading the entire team.
“He can come off as vanilla and one certain kind of way but when games are on the line he really does step up and has a voice. He’s done a really good job of growing into this role and being more demonstrative and saying ‘hey guys this is how we need to do it’ and not letting things slip through the cracks.
“He’s got it in there and he brings it out every now and then. He’s bringing it out a lot more now. There’s a lot of times in those offensive meetings and before games where he’s letting it loose and he’s showing that fire that he has.”
Sunday we begin to see if the change will make any difference.
[NOTE: ‘Kudos’ to Dan Duggan of The Athletic for doing the research on the coaching changes Burns has been through. That meant I didn’t have to.]
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