Giants Refuse to Learn Lesson By Hiring Brian Daboll
The New York Giants have officially announced that their next head coach will be Buffalo Bill’s offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. Daboll is seen as instrumental in the development of Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Daboll’s offense was tailored specifically for Allen, allowing the young quarterback to thrive. The Giants no doubt hope that he can do the same for New York’s young quarterback Daniel Jones. The other driving factor behind the Giants’ hiring of Daboll was the offensive coordinator’s “pedigree”. Daboll had served under Nick Saban and Bill Belichick. The leadership team in New York believes that Daboll “knows how to win” because of his time in winning organizations.
The decision to hire Daboll is proof that the Giants organization, ran by the Mara family, refuses to learn their lesson regarding hiring head coaches. Daboll is the 4th coach the Giants have hired since moving on from Tom Coughlin in 2015. The hiring reason for each of the other 3 coaches bare a striking resemblance to Daboll’s:
Ben McAdoo (2016-2017) McAdoo was promoted from offensive coordinator because of the success he had with Eli Manning. McAdoo had set up an offense that allowed an aging Eli Manning to put up some of the best seasons of his career. McAdoo’s run started well, the Giants went 11-5 and lost in the Wild Card Round in 2016. But after a 2-10 start in 2017, McAdoo was fired.
Pat Shurmur (2018-2019) Shurmur was brought in from Minnesota because of his success as an offensive coordinator with multiple other franchises. Shurmur was coming of helping the Vikings to a 13-3 season and an appearance in the NFC Championship game. Much praise was heaped on Shurmur for how he built his offense to cater to journeyman quarterback Case Keenum’s strengths. The Giants hired him hoping for the same result (notice the pattern here). It didn’t work. Shurmur went 9-23 in two seasons and was promptly fired.
Joe Judge (2020-2021). The Mara family decided to take a different approach with this hire. Joe Judge was a longtime New England Patriots assistant, most recently serving as the special teams coordinator under Bill Belichick. He had been a part of 3 Super Bowls during New England’s 2-decade long dynasty. He “knew how to win” and what “winning culture” was. Or so the Maras thought. The Giants struggled throughout the duration of Joe Judge’s tenure as head coach. They started 0-5 before going 6-10 in 2020. After a dismal 4-13 2021 season, Judge was fired.
The Giants should have noted that going with an offensive coordinator with an unproven head coaching back round or an assistant with from a winning organization had not provided them any success. New York went a dismal 32-61 between the three men and those two approaches. There was a clear and logical route the Mara’s could have gone for their next coach. That would be to select a candidate with prior head coaching experience. The obvious candidate for this would be former Colts and Lion’s head coach Jim Caldwell. Caldwell has winning experience:
· Taking the Colts to the Super Bowl in 2009
· Wining 55% of his games
· Leading the Detroit Lions to 3 winning seasons and 2 playoff berths in his 4 years as head coach
That last bullet is staggering. Any coach that can take the Detroit Lions to 3 wining seasons in 4 years should be applauded and highly valued. Yet no reports indicated that the Giants had any interest in Caldwell. Instead of learning from their past mistakes and taking advantage of Caldwell’s availability, the Giants decided to re-use their same faulty hiring process. Time will tell if the Giants got the right man for the job. But even if they did, it won’t be because of sound reasoning and great leadership. It will be sheer luck.