The New York Giants are in the midst of another tumultuous season. With the Giants sitting at 2-6 and en route to their seventh losing record in the last eight seasons, both head coach Brian Daboll and quarterback Daniel Jones are on the hot seat.
As a result, cracks may be forming with both Daboll and Jones playing for their respective jobs.
Did Brian Daboll Throw Daniel Jones Under the Bus?
Appearing on Thursday’s “The Pac McAfee Show,” former NFL head coach Chuck Pagano was critical of Daboll’s choice to point out a mistake from Jones in his Week 8 postgame press conference.
"Daniel Jones knows what he did and Brian Daboll didn't have to go public with that information..
It's bad ball" ~ @ChuckPaganoNFL #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/py8MLQUR87
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 31, 2024
The play in question was an interception on the final drive, which ended the game. New York was down 26-18 with 0:42 remaining and at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 35-yard line.
Beanie Bishop Jr. with the INT to seal the @steelers win! pic.twitter.com/YS8hN3dZM1
— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2024
Daboll was frank on Jones’ mistakes after Monday’s loss, discussing in significant detail multiple mistakes his quarterback made against the Steelers.
Daboll and Jones Are Approaching the End
Regardless of who is at fault, it’s clear that both Daboll and Jones face an uphill climb to remain with the 2025 Giants.
Jones is in the second year of a four-year, $160 million deal he signed after the Giants’ unexpected 2022 playoff berth. However, there is no guaranteed money after this season, and the Giants would save roughly $19 million against the salary cap (while still eating a dead cap hit of over $22 million) if they cut Jones.
Thus far, there’s no indication that Jones deserves to maintain the starting job past 2024. PFN’s QB+ metric, which produces a grade off of a cocktail of situational EPA and success rate metrics has Jones ranked as the 26th-best quarterback this season with a D+ grade (41.7). Writes PFN’s Ben Rolfe on Jones’ season:
“The fact that we find Jones at this end of the rankings in his sixth season is very telling about where his career should be heading in the coming months. Perhaps even more telling is that this season is currently profiling as the middle of Jones’ five qualified seasons.
“At best, Jones appears to be a backup option in the future because we have plenty of evidence now that his ceiling is well below the league average.
“Over the course of the last two years, Jones has posted his worst numbers from a clean pocket and when under pressure. That has resulted in career-low nYPA and third-down conversion numbers.”
Daboll is on equally thin ice. The Giants ranked 30th in scoring offense in 2023 and have regressed to 31st entering Week 9 this year. That’s despite Jones being healthy (he played only six games in 2023 with a torn ACL) and rookie sensation Malik Nabers joining the offense.
Beyond the tenuous personal relationship, Daboll hasn’t exactly helped out Jones since taking back playcalling duties this season. For example, Jones has one of the larger EPA splits between play action (-0.03) and non-play action (-0.17) dropbacks.
However, the Giants are using play action on only 23.5% of their dropbacks, which ranks 17th and well below the 33.8% play action rate from Jones’ last full season in 2022.
None of the Giants’ first three coaches since Tom Coughlin’s retirement lasted more than two seasons. Daboll has cleared that low bar by reaching Year 3, but it’s possible that could be the end of his run if the Giants continue to flounder towards another high draft pick.