Why The New York Giants Fired Brian Daboll Now

At first glance, it might be confusion precisely why the New York Giants treated Sunday’s 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears as a firable offense for head coach Brian Daboll.

After all, the Giants are no stranger to fourth-quarter collapses, having blown an even bigger lead earlier this season to Denver. They’re used to losing games they led on the road — four 10-point leads in road games blown this season already. And the offense struggled to respond to the Bears only after Jaxson Dart exited the game with a concussion.

But that confluence of factors, everything from how regularly the Giants made the late-game dreams of their opponents come true to a failure to protect Dart proved to be Daboll’s downfall after posting a record over four seasons of 20-40-1.

Or as Daboll explained the latest collapse, in what turned out to be his last-ever press conference as head coach of the Giants: “I mean, there were a number of things today. There were all three phases, just didn’t get the job done.”

It’s hard to argue! The offense simply stopped moving the ball with Dart out of the game. The defense could not slow down a Bears attack that it had limited to 10 points through three quarters and which isn’t nearly as effective as the offensive units of Dallas or Denver. The common thread, though, is the Giants proved incapable of making key defensive stops at the most critical times once again.

As for special teams? Well, the good news was the Giants didn’t deploy an injured or compromised kicker, sitting Graham Gano and elevating Younghoe Koo from the practice squad. The bad news was kicker/punter Jamie Gillan had one of his worst games as a Giant at the worst possible time, bookending his day with mistakes. His opening kickoff sailed out of bounds; his final punt glanced off the side of his foot and traveled just 26 yards.

Gillan hasn’t been a primary problem with the Giants. It’s hard to choose a single, proximate cause for another lost season, 2-8 so far. And that’s really the point: New York, in the Brian Daboll era, always seemed capable of finding that one specific way to lose a game.

But maybe the most disturbing part came not from wins and losses, but rather from how willing Daboll was to let Dart take a beating for the sake of showing progress. To hear Daboll say it, he would be doing a disservice to his young quarterback by curbing his competitive instincts.

“I mean, he’s a competitive guy,” Daboll said last week when asked about how much he could coach Dart out of taking unnecessary hits during a game. “I have confidence in the decision-making that he makes. If there are some that we think we can pull back on and learn from, that’s what we try to do. But I’m not going to second-guess a guy out there that’s competing and playing and has good vision and awareness and instincts. I wouldn’t take that away from him.”

But if the Giants were satisfied with Daboll’s risk management, he’d still be the coach. Instead, they’ll get a closer look at Mike Kafka, who has been elevated from interim status. As my colleague Matt Lombardo reported last week, Kafka will be a hot prospect for openings this offseason. Now, both sides get a chance to see what the fit is like to keep him in New York. (Do not expect defensive coordinator Shane Bowen to receive the same treatment around the league.)

Even the elevation of Kafka suggests the the Giants believe the team’s improvement offensively came, at best, despite the head coach. Those looking for optimism could have found some in the loss to the Bears, and in virtually every defeat this season. Just, it turns out, not quite enough to earn those victories, or save Brian Daboll’s job.