Brian Daboll And Joe Schoen Came To The Giants As A Package Deal Before The 2022 Season And They Should Leave The Giants As A Package Deal After The 2025 Season

So this narrative has been making its rounds since it's once again early November, the Giants are garbage, and fans are arguing if the coach, the GM, or both should be fired while headlines like the one above being printed as ownership tries to get their message out to people who still buy newspapers. As Jim Nantz says, this is truly a tradition unlike any other.

Which is why I am going to make my stance known about it now before the Giants win a couple of meaningless games in the second half to give us fans a false sense of hope for the future or once again devolve into a circus that completely cuts the knees out of any good juju that comes with having some really good building blocks for the future. Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll came to the Giants as a package deal before the 2022 season and should leave as one after the 2025 season (unless there is the most unlikely playoff run in the history of the NFL given the team's injuries, lack of depth, and brutal schedule).

I guess we can start with Joe Schoen since he is technically higher on the org chart. Here is a quick look at his drafts, which are the life blood for any good franchise since those players develop in-house and either become starters or at the very least provide depth while you learn their value over the years:

Trading a third to move up to get Jaxson Dart late in the first round feels like stealing right now, and his last two drafts have netted a stud at WR as well as EDGE, which are so damn crucial to a team. Yes, they were no-brainer picks in the Top 5 that could only be picked because the Giants absolutely sucked the previous season. But you still have to make the no-brainer pick, even if you have no brain. Skattebo was either the heart or the soul of that exciting run the Giants had in October before the Football Gods remembered we can't have too much fun. Flott may be developing into an actual good corner despite having trouble staying on the field. Then you can go through a bunch of guys who started well but have fallen off due to performance, injury, or both.

I can give Schoen a pass for the Evan Neal pick since Neal was damn near universally praised as being at worst a good future pro. Kayvon's been fine, even if he's been nowhere near the pass rushing force you would hope to get at number 7 overall. When you take all aspects of the game and put them together, Deonte Banks may be the worst football player I've ever seen despite clearly having the tools to be a very good one. Jalin Hyatt is a bust that somehow continues to bust while also keeping a roster spot from other players who can contribute. Seeing the name Josh Ezeudu makes me want to puke because he somehow became the answer at left tackle when Andrew Thomas once again got hurt despite being a guard in college, which may or may not have completely ruined him as a pro. For as good as first rounders Dart, Nabers, and Carter have looked, there are legitimate war crimes against Giants fans in some of those drafts.

Advertisement

The Brian Burns trade was a flat out win, even though you can only make a couple of those trades due to the amount of cap his contract took up. Bobby Okereke's signing looked like one as well but now feels like an L. Paris Campbell is somehow the softest thing named Paris in the world. Jermaine Eluemunor was the exact good signing the Giants seemed to have been allergic to for years. Darius Slayton keeps cashing checks then dropping huge passes. Then of course we have the Daniel Jones contract, which could've avoided if Schoen picked up his fifth year option instead of declining it. He didn't and the contract became an abject disaster, even though it probably wouldn't looked as bad if Schoen had built a franchise like the Colts have.

OK, once the Daniel Jones conversation comes back up, you know it's time to move on. 

So let's go to Brian Daboll, who won Coach of the Year and led the Giants to the playoffs his first season as head coach. Joe Schoen could say that playoff run happened with him as GM, but that team was mostly built with Dave Gettleman's players since the cap was so comically fucked. Because of that, I feel Daboll gets a little extra credit for winning with another GMs team. 

Daboll also seems to be a big reason why the Giants had to move on from Wink Martindale as defensive coordinator, which is fine if you replace him with an equal or better option. Instead we got this:

Now Daboll doesn't get a cookie for an average offense, even with his starting running back and receiver being out for the year. But at least that side of the ball is competitive for the entire game. The defense has been a disaster despite the front four being as good as the Giants have had since the NASCAR lineup was ruining opposing QBs lives. Injuries have been a factor in the secondary as well, but Schoen completely whiffing on multiple picks and signings if the reason everything went to shit once the starters got hurt.

If we want to add special teams into the equation, you can say everyone ever associated with the Giants should have been fired after Graham Gano injuries cost the team three games in three seasons and I honestly wouldn't have a problem with it.

Advertisement

At the end of the day, both Schoen and Daboll resided over an unlikely playoff run in Year 1, a 6-11 follow up, the worst year in franchise history, and now the third straight season starting 2-7. You can say things feel different, look different, or are different. But as a wise man much wiser than anyone in East Rutherford today once said, you are what your record says you are and the Giants are once again shitty like last year. Which is why I implore John Mara to actually follow through with what he said following the worst season in Giants history in 2024.

Rip up everything to the roots and start fresh. Keeping around a GM who has gone 11-32 is his last three seasons is only going to make it hiring a new head coach harder since they are going to want a more stable situation, even if your situation includes a legitimate quarterback, left tackle, alpha receiver, and edge rusher all under 27 as well as contract. That is the same when it comes to hiring new coordinators and assistants.

You also can't keep around the coach who has that same putrid record over the last three seasons but also has proven his game management and staff management is nowhere near a championship level. Yes, the rookie QB seems to be developing well under him. But you can't keep a head coach around just because the rookie QB looks good. Brian Daboll is not the only coach that can develop a talented QB like Jaxson Dart who already has proven he can play in the NFL. If your next GM can't find a good offensive mind to help develop Dart, that person shouldn't be hired as your next GM. Ownership also shouldn't have a say on who that offensive mind should be either if they truly are responsible for this man ruining the last QB the Giants drafted in the first round.

Oh God, they are going to fuck all of this up again, aren't they?

Advertisement

Obligatory shout out to the Unholy Trinity that many Giants fans think are the root of all this.