What might Brian Daboll’s ‘detailed plan’ for keeping his job look like?

New York Giants co-owner John Mara reportedly wants to sit down with GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll to hear their plans for turning things around after two miserable seasons before deciding whether to keep or can both.

Daboll, who seems to be on shakier ground if current scuttlebutt is to be believed, is said to have “a detailed plan” for how to get things going in the right direction.

So, what might be in Daboll’s plan? Inquiring minds, including those who read Big Blue View, want to know. This question from reader Brian Misdom tumbled from the Internet into the Big Blue View inbox the other day:

If you are Daboll, what exactly are you hanging your hat on to show you are the right head coach moving forward? Following a surprise 2022, not much has gone well for him, with only Mara’s desire for consistency working in his favor.

Brian, you’re right that not a lot has gone right for Daboll since he won that Coach of the Year award after leading the Giants to an out-of-nowhere playoff victory in 2022. When Daboll won the award, Mara kiddingly (maybe presciently?) warned the coach not to go “from Bono to Bozo.”

Well, perhaps Mara wishes he had never uttered those words. Daboll’s not-so-merry band of Giants has resembled a clown show the past two seasons.

Let me put myself in Mara’s shoes. Here are some of the things I want to hear about, and the pitch that I think Daboll might make.

The quarterback conundrum

There are two questions Daboll needs to address:

1. As a coach with a reputation — deserved or not — for developing quarterbacks, why couldn’t he make it work with Daniel Jones?
2. Considering the failure of the past two years, why should Daboll be trusted to choose the right quarterback in the draft and then develop him?

The Jones question.

Daboll needs to explain why things fell apart so dramatically with Jones after that promising 2022 season, when Jones played the best football of his career.

I think Daboll starts by pointing out that Jones was fully healthy in that first season. The Giants were able to fully incorporates Jones’ into the run game, and he was fifth in the NFL in quarterback rushing yards with a career-high 705 yards.

Jones started all 10 games before his benching/release, but the 2023 torn ACL took some of the running ability he needs to be successful. Jones averaged a career-low 4.0 yards per rushing attempt this season, far below his 5.5 yards per attempt career average.

Saquon Barkley was fully healthy in 2022, playing in 16 games and gaining more than 1,300 rushing yards. Left tackle Andrew Thomas was also healthy all season, earning second-team All-Pro honors.

Daboll should argue that in 2024, “the year for Daniel,” per Schoen, the quarterback showed what he is. Daboll should also argue that Jones was consistently placed in positions to succeed, which is a coach’s job, and that Jones’ weaknesses — inaccuracy, slow decision-making, mistakes at crucial times — were the difference in a number of winnable games this season.

The next quarterback.

Daboll gets a lot of credit for Josh Allen’s development with the Buffalo Bills from a wild, raw, mistake-prone college quarterback into one of the best in the game. He was also Brett Favre’s quarterbacks coach for a year with the New York Jets.

Prior to Daboll’s stint with the Bills, the collection of quarterbacks and the results of his stints as an offensive coordinator, were not impressive.

• 2009, Cleveland Browns: QBs — Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson; 5-11 record, 29th in points.
• 2010, Browns: QBs — Colt McCoy, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace; 5-11, 31st.
• 2011, Miami Dolphins: QBs — Matt Moore, Chad Henne; 6-10, 20th.
• 2012, Kansas City Chiefs: QBs — Matt Cassel, Brady Quinn; 2-14, 32nd

Daboll will, of course, point to his work with Allen. He will point to what he learned from Bill Belichick and Nick Saban while working for them from 2013-2017.

Daboll will likely lay out a plan that includes identifying the right quarterback. He will point to Jayden Daniels, whom we know he coveted, and the Giants’ pursuit of a trade up for Drake Maye, as evidence of his ability to identify that quarterback.

If the Giants can get that quarterback at the top of this draft, Daboll will likely lay out a plan that includes also bringing in the right veteran mentor. If the Giants aren’t able to get that quarterback early in the draft, the plan would likely entail acquiring the best veteran quarterback possible as a 2025 bridge and drafting a developmental player.

Fixing the broken offense

The offense wasn’t good in 2023. The line was wretched, especially after Thomas got hurt on the first drive of the season. Jones got hurt. Barkley missed time. Darren Waller wasn’t what the Giants hoped he would be.

Daboll took play-calling away from Mike Kafka in 2024, and his decision to run the offense himself was largely lauded as the correct one. He was, after all, leaning into what was supposed to be his strength in a year that looked to be critical for his long-term job security.

Obviously, it didn’t work.

The Giants are 3-13. Daboll didn’t get 2022-caliber play from Jones. The Giants are 31st in points, 29th in yards, 30th in yards per play and 27th in third-down efficiency. Five times this season they have scored in single-digits.

More numbers.

The Giants are 30th in the NFL in first-quarter points per game (2.3), last in red zone scoring (44.19%) and last in the league in passing touchdowns per game (0.9).

There are more, but you get the point.

What could Daboll’s plan to fix this be?

First, of course, is aggressively pursuing the right quarterback. Top-tier quarterback play erases a lot of other deficiencies. If I am Daboll, I point to the number of winnable games this season that turned on the Giants’ quarterback not making the winning play in critical moments.

It can’t, though, all be about the quarterback.

If I’m Daboll, I admit that the foray into calling plays AND being the head coach did not work. I would tell Mara, and Schoen, that I would step back and turn control of the offense over to a fully-empowered play-calling offensive coordinator if that is what the organization wants. It is what Schoen has always preferred, though he has allowed Daboll to make that final decision.

Could that be Mike Kafka? Doubtful. Even though Kafka is under contract for next season, that bridge may be burned. Daboll might want to promote quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney, one of his favorite lieutenants. A better sell might be finding his own Kliff Kingsbury, a guy who has done it successfully before.

Those miserable starts

In 2023, the Giants opened the season with an embarrassing 40-0 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in prime time. They were clearly not ready to play. They ended up 1-5 and 2-8 before DeVito-mania provided a temporary bright spot.

In 2024, it was clear looking at the schedule that the two season-opening games against the Minnesota Vikings and Washington Commanders were critical. The Giants again embarrassed themselves in a season-opener, losing 28-6 and for the second straight year looking like they weren’t ready to begin the season.

A loss to Washington left them 0-2. By the time they suffered a horrific loss to the Carolina Panthers in Germany they were again 2-8 and found it necessary to cut ties with Jones, their quarterback for the past 5½ years.

Daboll worked in the past for Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots, and has some of that ‘the first few games are really an extension of the preseason’ attitude Belichick always had. Joe Judge also had it, and admitted to it. It simply doesn’t work when you don’t have Tom Brady and an established, championship roster that already knows how to win games.

Daboll prefers not to push players in the spring and summer. In the spring of 2023, an alarming number of players were in red non-contact jerseys or not practicing at all. Starting players were on the field for only one series of plays during the entire preseason.

This year Daboll pushed a bit harder, with more 11-on-11 and competitive periods. Still, there were players at times sitting out of practices when it seemed they could, or should, have been getting some reps. There were even a few occasions where players like Jermaine Eluemunor, Malik Nabers and Brian Burns forced their way back on to the field for practice reps. For the second year in a row, starters did not play in the final preseason game. That is problematic because it means in Week 1 players are taking the field not having played a truly competitive snap in at least three weeks. Unfathomable for a team that isn’t established.

Daboll needs to present a plan for getting off to quicker starts, and it absolutely needs to include pushing players harder in the buildup to the season. Part of that has to include players getting more action in preseason games, particularly in Week 3. If Patrick Mahomes can do it, Giants players can do it. Part of it has to include getting players with minor injuries on the field as long as they are able, and perhaps getting more practice reps for the players who will be relied upon early in the season. Part of that also includes finding a veteran quarterback the Giants can win games with.

There is one other piece to these poor starts.

Research from Pro Football Network shows that during Daboll’s three seasons the Giants have been the worst first-quarter team in football. Per PFN, the Giants have been outscored 254-100, a -154 point differential, in the first quarter. No other team has posted a point differential worse than -84 during that time.

As PFN wrote in its release, “There are a lot of factors in play for a stat like that, but the head coach is ultimately responsible for his team’s readiness each week.”

The Giants have not been ready to play at the beginnings of games for the last two seasons overall, and that reflects on the head coach.

Daboll needs to sign off on more work for his key players to prepare for the season, and to examine what it is about his game-planning or pre-game motivation that is coming up short.

Final thoughts

There would likely be other, smaller pieces to the plan. Those, though, would be the major tenets.

Will whatever plan Daboll presents to Mara be enough to earn him a chance to stay? It won’t be long before we find out.