Big Blue View
The New York Giants have fired head coach Brian Daboll and named Mike Kafka interim head coach for the rest of the season.
The Giants are 2-8 and have lost four straight games. They are 11-33 (.250) since making the playoffs in Daboll’s first season as head coach, and 20-40-1 (.336) over Daboll’s three-plus seasons as head coach. Only Bill Arnsparger (.200), Pat Shurmur (.281) and Joe Judge (.303) have lower winning percentages than Daboll among Giants full time head coaches.
This is the third straight season in which the Giants have been 2-8 after 10 games.
“We spoke this morning about the direction of our franchise on the field, and we have decided that, at this time, it is in our best interest to make a change at the head coaching position,” president John Mara and chairman Steve Tisch said in a joint statement.
“The past few seasons have been nothing short of disappointing, and we have not met our expectations for this franchise. We understand the frustrations of our fans, and we will work to deliver a significantly improved product.
“We appreciate Coach Daboll for his contributions to our organization. We wish the Daboll family all the best in the future.”
GM Joe Schoen and embattled defensive coordinator Shane Bowen will remain in their jobs.
“We feel like Joe has assembled a good young nucleus of talent, and we look forward to its development,” said Mara. “Unfortunately, the results over the past three years have not been what any of us want. We take full responsibility for those results and look forward to the kind of success our fans expect.”
“These are difficult decisions, and John and I do not take them lightly,” said Tisch, “but we feel like this is the right thing to do at this time and will allow us to move forward.”
Sunday’s meltdown against the Chicago Bears, losing a 10-point lead in the final six minutes of play, was the fourth time this season the Giants had blown double-digit leads. In two of those games, the Giants had 10-point leads with less than four minutes to play.
The worst of those came Week 7 when the Giants led the Denver Broncos 19-0 after three quarters, but ended up losing 33-32. In the process they became the first NFL team in more than 1,600 games to have an 18-point lead with six minutes to play and lose in regulation.
Kafka, who has never been an NFL head coach, has been Daboll’s offensive coordinator since 2022.
Daboll won Coach of the Year in 2022, his first season. That year the Giants went 9-7-1 and defeated the Minnesota Vikings in a wild-card round playoff game.
The Giants started that season 6-1. but went 3-6-1 over the final 10 games.
Daboll had been scheduled to hold his weekly day after game press conference on Monday afternoon. News of his firing broke about an hour before that was to take place. That event has been cancelled,...
