There is a very real possibility that in the eyes of owner John Mara, New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll is coaching for his job in 2025.
That’s just the reality of winning only nine games combined over the past two seasons, while overseeing a stagnant offense, and at times even struggling to look competitive on Sundays.
As the 2025 regular season approaches ESPN NFL analyst Bill Barnwell points out that Daboll can no longer count on the goodwill from making the postseason and winning a playoff game in 2022 to provide much job security beyond this fall.
“The clock is ticking on Daboll’s chances of proving he wasn’t a one-year mirage in New York,” Barnwell writes, listing Daboll among the people facing the most pressure across the NFL. “The Giants finally overhauled their quarterback room, flirting with Matthew Stafford before signing Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston.
“They used their first-round pick on Jaxson Dart, who represents the long-term prospect they presumably expected to draft in 2023 before Jones’ career season in 2022 sent them in another direction. If Dart shows promise, Daboll will be able to make the case that his continued employment is the best thing for his quarterback’s future. If not? He should be in demand as an offensive coordinator elsewhere, but his time in New York will likely come to an end.”
While Daboll delivered the Giants’ lone playoff victory since winning the Super Bowl following the 2011 season, 18-32-1 record leaves much to be desired.
If the Giants’ offense doesn’t make major strides around Russell Wilson, or the defense doesn’t regain its teeth, or Dart fails to impress, Daboll could find himself following in the footsteps of Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, and Joe Judge as fired coaches since 2017.
Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll Already Planning How to Upgrade the Roster
Ishika Samant | GettyThe New York Giants still have the opportunity to upgrade the roster this summer.
The Giants have made some major additions ahead of this season.
Beyond drafting Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart in the first round, New York added veteran talent by signing the likes of defensive backs Javon Holland and Paulson Adebo to upgrade one of the weaker position groups across the roster.
Still, with training camp just getting underway, and the Giants having the benefit of not only preseason games to scout players on other rosters but all of the knowledge to be gleaned by joint practices with the New York Jets, Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen are already making preliminary plans on how to upgrade the roster before Week 1.
“If the first two teams don’t claim a player, now it comes to us and we’ve had some success claiming some players since we’ve been here,” Schoen told reporters, ahead of entering cut down weekend with the No. 3 waiver wire priority. “At the, we call it the second draft, that time of year. It’s a busy time of year. It’s a lot of players to work through, a lot of film to watch. We will evaluate that and then as Dabs was just talking about, there are injuries and the roster may look different a week from now just because of injuries. And we made a transaction yesterday with bringing in K’Von Wallace.
“There are injuries, you’re trying to keep everybody fresh, so you need everybody out there on the field to take the reps. We’ve got an emergency list that’s ready to go if a player gets hurt at a certain position. We have workouts during this time, it’s a busy time of year, but it’s fun, it’s great. We’re glad to be back to work and excited for the season.”
Whether it is injuries that force the Giants to add a player, or a bottom of the roster player gets cut by a team New York faced in the preseason and believed they could add quality depth, the roster at the end of August will look drastically different than the one taking the field for practices in July.
Given that there will be upwards of 1,300 players released by their current teams by the time final roster cuts are made, Schoen, Daboll, and the Giants may have the opportunity to add some diamonds in the rough to a roster that remains in the midst of a rebuild.
Giants’ Jameis Winston a Top Trade Candidate
GettyNew York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston has been the subject of trade rumors even since OTAs.
Daboll and the Giants’ plan is to open the regular season with Russell Wilson as the starting quarterback, but Jaxson Dart might already be making a strong push to wrangle away the top job.
After taking second-team reps in the first practice of the summer, over Jameis Winston, suddenly it appears that Winston’s presence as an affordable veteran backup might not be necessary for a team like the Giants with many pressing holes across the roster.
If Dart continues to make big strides this summer, and shows he’s ready to at least be Wilson’s top backup, the Giants could look to trade the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.
According to Pro Football Focus, Winston is among the top trade candidates across the league, this summer.
“While with the Browns in 2024, Winston tallied a 69.5 PFF passing grade with 11 big-time throws and 18 turnover-worthy plays,” Bradley Locker wrote for PFF. “The 31-year-old displayed that he’s still capable of slinging the ball at a high level in spurts, producing 82.0-plus PFF passing grades against the Steelers and Bengals last year.
“The Giants are likely to start either Russell Wilson or first-round pick Jaxson Dart, leaving Winston as the team’s presumptive QB3. New York could keep the former first overall pick in that role, but Winston figures to be most teams’ top trade target when a quarterback injury inevitably happens.”
If a starting quarterback for a contending team gets injured over the next several weeks, the Giants could be holding a premium asset, in Winston, to net a draft pick to keep building the roster or fill a need with a player who can contribute this season.
Even though Winston is set to count just $3 million against the cap in 2025 and $5 million in 2026, he could prove more valuable as a trade chip than as an affordable No. 2 or even No. 3 quarterback.
Giants’ Brian Daboll Facing Massive Pressure to Avoid ‘One Year Mirage’ Label