Getty Offensive Coordinator Brian Daboll of the Buffalo Bills looks on prior to the AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on January 23, 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri
One of the biggest shifts for the Buffalo Bills heading into the 2022 NFL season is their coaching staff. After Joe Schoen, one of Buffalo’s longtime top executives accepted a new job as the New York Giants‘ general manager, the Bills’ former offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll, joined him as the team’s new head coach.
While it was a devasting blow to lose Daboll, who’s been a key factor in quarterback Josh Allen‘s exponential growth over the past four years, fans, analysts, and Bills players were thrilled to see such a deserving coach rise up in the league.
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Since accepting the head coaching job in late January, the 47-year-old has made his own health a priority. In an interview with ESPN’s Breaking Big Blue podcast with Jordan Ranaan earlier this month, former Bills backup quarterback Davis Webb, who followed Daboll to the Giants, spoke about his body transformation.
“He’s dreamt about this,” Webb said of Daboll’s longtime goal of becoming a head coach. “He’s fired up. He’s taking control. He’s loose. He’s himself. He’s not trying to be someone he’s coached under, obviously, notable names are Nick Saban, Sean McDermott, Bill Belichick… He’s ‘Dabes’.”
When Ranaan says he’s heard Daboll lost around 30 to 40 pounds, “I think it’s 50 to 60,” Webb replied. “He took the offseason, just like a couple of guys have in the building to lose some weight and he’s absolutely crushed it. Yeah, he looks great.”
It still overjoys me that the New York Giants employ Joe Schoen as general manager and Brian Daboll as head coach. #TogetherBlue
Brian Daboll and Steve Smith walking off the practice field. Smith is shooting some video. Team says he’s not actually joining the coaching staff
Photos shared on social media clearly show Daboll has shed a good amount of weight. In an interview with the New York Post‘s Ian O’Connor, Daboll discussed his slim down.
“I lost 50-some pounds since the press conference,” he said of his first media day as the Giants head coach, during which he was hilariously dragged on Twitter of the oversized blue suit he wore.
Daboll Said He Lost Weight as the Result of a Bet
More Dabes on the mic‼️
Adding more details to Webb’s statement about Daboll’s weight loss, O’Connor wrote, “Daboll explained that he dropped the weight as part of an in-house bet with a colleague. He is a competitor, after all, and he wanted to win the competition. Daboll felt better as a lighter version of his old self, but to a coaching lifer the rhythms of a football season are, well, the rhythms of a football season.”
Daboll admitted that since practices started, he’s gained about 20 pounds back. “I was just trying to get as low as I can get,” he told O’Connor, “but once the season starts it goes right back up.”
This isn’t the first time Daboll has dropped a considerable amount of weight. Back in 2010, as the second-youngest assistant on the Browns staff under then-coach Eric Mangini, the 5-foot-10 coordinator “ballooned to nearly 250 pounds” as reported by Cleveland.com‘s Tony Grossi.
GettyBrian Daboll of the Cleveland Browns poses for his 2010 NFL headshot.
“He’d pore over film until 2 or 3 in the morning with Whoppers and soft drinks. He slept little and exercised less,” Grossi wrote. “But the team turned around late and won its last four games. Daboll’s personal turnaround continued in the off-season. He lost 65 pounds by eating better and exercising more.”
How Allen Will Perform Without Daboll & How the Giants Coach Will Fare Without Allen Is Up for Debate
GettyJosh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills talks to offensive coordinator Brian Daboll during training camp at Highmark Stadium on July 31, 2021 in Orchard Park, New York.
The discussion over whether Allen would be where he is without Daboll and how Daboll will fare as head coach of the Giants without an elite quarterback leading the team became a hot topic of debate on Twitter.
Pro Football Focus analyst Sam Monson tweeted on June 16, “If Josh Allen never happened, Brian Daboll’s resume looks verrrrry different. & I think it’s pretty unclear who or what was primarily responsible for Allen’s development. This is a downer of a tweet, but just struck me today looking through his career.”
NFL Draft analyst Joe Marino believes the credit goes beyond just Allen and Daboll. Marino tweeted, “Boring response but I believe the person most responsible for Josh Allen’s growth is Josh Allen. He embraced the areas he needed to get better and made it happen. Daboll, McDermott, Beane and Jordan Palmer deserve plenty of credit but Josh himself gets the most credit IMO.”
A Cover 1 sports host used an outside example in his arugment. He tweeted, “If Tom Brady never happened, Bill Belichick’s resume looks verrrrry different. & I think it’s pretty unclear who or what was primarily responsible for Brady’s development. This is a downer of a tweet, but just struck me today looking through his career.”
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