Giant Part Way With Brian Daboll
Giant have Reportedly relieved Brian Daboll of his duties as head coach, ending his tenure with the franchise. In his place, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka has been named interim head coach for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Daboll arrived in New York in 2022 amid high hopes. In his first season, he led the Giants to a 9-7-1 record and a playoff berth—the team’s first postseason win in over a decade.
That early success earned him NFL Coach of the Year honours and raised expectations for what the franchise could become.
However, that momentum did not last. The Giants regressed in the following seasons, posting a 6-11 record in 2023 and an even worse 3-14 finish in 2024.
This year, the team started 2-8, with another blow-late loss—a 24-20 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bears—ultimately being the final straw.
The decision to move on from Daboll reflects several compounding issues. Despite the early success, the Giants failed to build sustainable momentum, with a cumulative 20-40-1 record under his leadership.
The team’s inability to close out games became a hallmark: multiple late-game collapses undermined confidence and highlighted problems in execution and in-game decision making.
Beyond performance on the field, deeper structural questions emerged. The Giants have lost key players from the initial era of hope, and the coaching staff failed to evolve sufficiently. The ownership, led by John Mara and Steve Tisch, acknowledged as much in their statement: “The past few seasons have been nothing short of disappointing, and we have not met our expectations for this franchise.”
Looking ahead: Kafka at the helm, Schoen stays
With Daboll gone, the Giants are charting a fresh path. Mike Kafka, previously the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach, assumes interim control.
His background includes time as a quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator with the Kansas City Chiefs under Andy Reid, where he was part of the staff that won Super Bowl LIV.
Meanwhile, the organization is keeping its general manager, Joe Schoen, and he will lead the search for the next full-time head coach. The decision to retain Schoen signals ownership’s belief in the roster and longer-term build, despite the coaching change.
Mid-season firings are rare for the Giants—Daboll is only the third coach in franchise history to be dismissed before season’s end. The move is a statement of urgency: the organization is signaling that patience has run thin and that changes at the top are required to salvage this season and move toward sustained competitiveness.
For the Giants’ fanbase, the challenge now becomes whether this shake-up can reignite a team that has struggled to find consistency.
The young nucleus of talent on the roster may yet pay off, but success will depend on effective leadership, clear direction, and execution — areas that stitched together the unraveling of the Daboll era.
As the 2025 season continues, all eyes will be on how Kafka manages the interim period—and how the Giants perform in the search for a new dispatch to guide the next chapter.