{"id":208971,"date":"2025-01-13T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=208971"},"modified":"2025-01-12T23:57:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T04:57:24","slug":"did-taking-over-play-calling-change-brian-daboll-as-a-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/13\/did-taking-over-play-calling-change-brian-daboll-as-a-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Taking Over Play-Calling Change Brian Daboll as a Head Coach?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

The<\/span> New<\/span> York<\/span> Giants <\/span><\/a>hired <\/span>Brian Daboll <\/span>as <\/span>head coach <\/span>in January <\/span>2022, following several coaching changes since Tom Coughlin was head coach for nine years before his departure in 2015. Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge followed as head coaches leading up to Daboll. <\/span><\/p>\n

In his first year, he was able to make a name for himself by taking the Giants to the playoffs<\/span>. However, Daboll had <\/span>bigger<\/span> aspirations<\/span> than<\/span> being<\/span> just<\/span> a head coach; he wanted to <\/span>be<\/span> in<\/span> charge<\/span> of calling plays, too<\/span>. Ever since his <\/span>first<\/span> season as head coach, he made a <\/span>switch<\/span> that changed the course of his coaching career<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before joining<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the Giants’<\/span> sidelines, Daboll was the <\/span>offensive coordinator for<\/span>\u00a0the Buffalo Bills<\/a>. He spent four years in Buffalo <\/span>from 2018 to 2021 <\/span>as their play-caller<\/span>.<\/span> It<\/span> was<\/span> his<\/span> last<\/span> two seasons with the Bills <\/span>that<\/span> eventually<\/span> earned <\/span>him his head coaching job with the Giants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Daboll led the Giants to the playoffs in 2022 but struggled after taking over play-calling. Now, after being back for a fourth season, Daboll’s future may depend on changes in 2025.<\/h2>\n

2020<\/strong>
\nThe Bills’ offense was second in the league in both points per game and yards per game, averaging 31.3 points per game and 396.4 yards per game. Josh Allen threw a career-high 4,544 yards and 37 touchdowns in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2021<\/strong>
\nThe Bill’s offense was third in the league in points per game, with an average of 28.4 points. Allen finished sixth in the league with 4,407 yards, 36 touchdown passes, and a franchise-record 409 completions.<\/span><\/p>\n

First Year as Head Coach versus the Past Two Seasons<\/h3>\n

In Daboll’s first year as head coach with the Giants, he was not in charge of calling plays. The Giants hired Mike Kafka as offensive coordinator, an aspiring candidate from the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> at the time. Kafka spent five seasons with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid, going from quality coach to quarterbacks coach.<\/p>\n

Going into the 2022 season, Kafka was assigned<\/span> the<\/span> new role<\/span> of calling plays. That season, Daniel Jones had<\/span>\u00a0a career year<\/span>,<\/span> throwing for 3,205 yards and 15 touchdowns<\/a>. <\/span>On the ground, <\/span>Jones <\/span>rushed<\/span> for 708 <\/span>yards and seven touchdowns. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Giants wrapped up<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the regular season 9-7-1 and<\/span> also found themselves back in the playoffs <\/span>for the first time since 2016<\/span>. On offense, <\/span>within<\/span> Kafka’s system, they <\/span>managed<\/span> to have <\/span>just <\/span>the<\/span> right amount of talent<\/span>\u2014while Daboll <\/span>demonstrated<\/span> what it <\/span>truly <\/span>means to <\/span>lead a team and <\/span>extract<\/span> all potential<\/span> from<\/span> an underwhelming roster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2022 Offensive Stats (Mike Kafka as Play-Caller)<\/h3>\n

21.5 points per game (18th in the league)
\n318.5 total yards per game (26th)
\n196.4 passing yards per game (24th)
\n122.1 rushing yards per game (8th)
\n1.3 turnovers per game (tied – 18th)
\n\u00a0*Average Per Game*<\/em><\/p>\n

2023 Offensive Stats (Brian Daboll as Play-Caller)<\/h3>\n

17.9 points per game (26th in the league), a 16.7% decrease from 2022.
\n288.4 total yards per game (30th), a 9.5% decrease from 2022.
\n184.3 passing yards per game (30th), a 6.2% decrease from 2022.
\n104.1 rushing yards per game (18th), a 14.7% decrease from 2022.
\n1.6 turnovers per game (tied – 24th), a 23,1% increase from 2022.<\/p>\n

It was Daboll <\/span>in<\/span> 2023<\/span> who<\/span> took<\/span> on the <\/span>task<\/span> of play-calling <\/span>responsibilities<\/span> from <\/span>Kafka. The question <\/span>arises:<\/span> Can<\/span> a head coach <\/span>successfully<\/span> handle<\/span> all <\/span>his<\/span> responsibilities<\/span>\u00a0and,<\/span> at<\/span> the<\/span> same<\/span> time, focus <\/span>on the <\/span>offense? Was this <\/span>really<\/span> the right <\/span>decision<\/span>? <\/span>Reflecting<\/span> on<\/span> the 2022 and 2023 seasons, one could argue a difference\u2014first when he took a backseat and <\/span>then<\/span> when<\/span> he<\/span> retook<\/span> control.<\/span><\/p>\n

During<\/span> Daboll’s<\/span> play-calling <\/span>in 2023<\/span>,<\/span> Jones didn’t have a great season before it ended early due to injury.<\/span>\u00a0He<\/span> finished <\/span>with 909 yards, two touchdowns, and six interceptions through six games. After<\/span> already spending time<\/span> dealing with a pinched nerve in his neck, Jones’s season ended in November of 2023 when he tore his ACL versus the Raiders.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

This Season Leaves Uncertainty<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n

This season, you can blame inconsistency at quarterback for the offense’s back seasons. Jones was the starter for the first 10 games of the season before being released.<\/a> Drew Lock started in five games this season, Tommy DeVito started for two and Tim Boyle also made an appearance in the second half of the home game against the Ravens.<\/p>\n

The Giants’ offense ranked 30th again this back-to-backverage yards per game with 294.8. After losing running back Saquon Barkley, the Giants dropped another five spots in rushing yards per game compared to last season, averaging 104.9 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

While their passing game wasn’t much better, averaging 189.9 per game (28th in NFL). With all the quarterbacks combined that played this season, they threw for a total of 3,521 yards and 15 touchdowns<\/a>. Also<\/span>, <\/span>third<\/span> downs<\/span> were<\/span> a<\/span> nightmare<\/span> for<\/span> the<\/span> Giant’s<\/span> offense,<\/span> as<\/span> they could\u00a0only <\/span>convert <\/span>35.34%. <\/span>Scoring in <\/span>the <\/span>red<\/span> zone<\/span> was the worst for the<\/span>\u00a0Giants’<\/span> offense<\/span> as they <\/span>could<\/span> only<\/span> manage<\/span> a<\/span> conversion<\/span> rate of <\/span>43.18<\/span>%<\/span> and<\/span> score <\/span>16.1 points per game<\/span>\u2014second<\/span> to<\/span> last<\/span> in<\/span> the<\/span> average <\/span>of <\/span>points scored. <\/span><\/p>\n

Under Daboll’s play calling, the team has gone 9-25 over the past two years; his overall three-year record with the Giants stands at 18-32-1.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ownership decided to retain Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen for a fourth season after the team’s 3-14 record this year after going 6-11 the season prior. After last week’s media session with co-owner John Mara, one takeaway was that Daboll could have to give up play calling in 2025.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Courtesy of Eric Hartline – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Daboll led the Giants to the playoffs in 2022 but struggled after taking over play-calling. His future may depend on changes in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5362,"featured_media":210130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[3472,2675,7300],"class_list":["post-208971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giants","tag-brian-daboll","tag-john-mara","tag-new-york-giants-news"],"modified_by":"Drew VonScio","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208971"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210138,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208971\/revisions\/210138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}