It came as a surprise when New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll was fired after the Giants 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears.
But after a bit of reflection, it wasn’t an unwelcome surprise.
An overwhelming majority of Giants fans agree that it was the right move to dismiss Daboll after the team’s third 2-8 start in three consecutive years. There may have been some hope that the Giants could turn things around — or at least that Daboll’s relationship with Jaxson Dart was a net positive — before the Giants 4th quarter collapse to the Bears. But yet another loss combined with the injury to Dart used up whatever good will Daboll had left.
Now, 89 percent of Giants fans believe that firing Daboll was the correct move.
To a large extent, it was surprising that Daboll even remained the Giants’ head coach for the 2025 season after the 2024 season. However, Giants’ management believed he was the right person to find and develop their next franchise quarterback.
And to Daboll’s credit, Jaxson Dart has certainly looked like The Guy for the Giants.
However, too much water has passed under the bridge. In particular, the Giants defense has fallen far, far short of expectations after an off-season full of extensive investments. Daboll stood behind DC Shane Bowen, and in doing so took the defense’s failings onto himself. Between that and the injury to Dart, Daboll sealed his fate with the loss to the Bears.
Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka has taken over for Daboll as (interim) head coach, and just under half of Giants fans believe he will have some modicum of success in the role.
To be fair to Kafka, “success” as interim head coach likely doesn’t include a winning record (which is still mathematically possible). However the belief here is that a competitive team, the continued development of Dart, and greater attention to detail on the defensive side of the ball would constitute a successful tenure.
Obviously the ideal outcome would be for Kafka to become the next Sean McVay or Kyle Shannahan and prove the teams that passed on him as head coach to be fools. But Giants’ fans would likely take competitive losses that improve their draft position while Dart continues to prove himself as the Giants’ Franchise Quarterback.
We’ll just have to see if that would be enough for Kafka to return to the Giants’ coaching staff to continue Dart’s development.
Interestingly, fan confidence in the future of the Giants’ franchise has risen with the firing of Daboll.
Nearly half of Giants fans — 44% — believe that the team is headed in the right direction.
That obviously isn’t an overwhelming number of fans confident in the team. However, it’s a nice rebound from the 26 percent of fans who were confident in the future of the team a week ago.
We’ve noted multiple times that Giants fans want to believe in their team. This week is proof that even in the face of historically bad performance — the odds of the Giants blowing four double-digit leads in the fourth quarter is somewhere around 1/60,000 — fans want to see the team making moves toward a better future.
The feeling here is that the most frustrating aspect of the Giants’ season isn’t that the Giants are bad. They’re losing games and playing poorly in big moments, but the team itself isn’t bad. It would be understandable if they were at a definite talent disadvantage, but the Giants have the talent to compete with the best in the NFL. Even with all of their injuries, you can’t blow a double-digit lead without first getting a double-digit lead. And you can’t get double-digit leads without talent.
The problem has been coaching. And the Giants have taken the first steps toward fixing those problems. There’s still a long way to go, but at least the future is open to a better tomorrow.
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