Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll are getting another chance to turn things around for the New York Giants.
While John Mara wouldn't put any time limit on his commitment to the general manager and head coach, he made it clear he needs to see marked improvement. And soon.
“It better not take too long,” said Mara, the team president and co-owner, “because I’ve just about run out of patience.”
Mara announced Monday that he and co-owner Steve Tisch decided to move forward with the Giants' current leadership even after a 3-14 season that ranks among the franchise's worst.
“We came to the decision that staying with both of them is the best course of action for us right now,” Mara said at the team's facility. “I think in Brian’s case, he was the Coach of the Year two years ago. That didn’t disappear all of a sudden. I still believe he can do that again. And in Joe’s case, I thought we had an outstanding draft class this year. I thought we had a really good free agency period. I really like the staff that he’s put together and built.”
Mara said he spoke to Schoen and Daboll for several hours last Friday before deciding to bring both back.
“I think that they’re the right two guys to lead us going forward," Mara said. “I understand, believe me, that that’s not going to be the most popular decision in Giant land.”
Frustrated fans, unhappy during a franchise-record 10-game losing streak, flew banners from planes above MetLife Stadium before the Giants’ last two home games, urging Mara to make wholesale changes.
“I didn’t need planes flying over me to tell me how upset the fans are,” Mara said. “I hear from them every day. So, that really did not have much of an effect. I get how upset they are. I try to respond to them. Nobody was more upset than I am about how we performed in recent years. I have to stand up here and take the heat for that.”
Instead, Schoen and Daboll will be back next season after the Giants went 0-6 in the NFC East and 1-8 at home.
“We’re not good enough,” Schoen acknowledged while placing the blame on himself. “We didn’t play well enough. I’ve got to do a better job assembling a roster with more talent so we can go out and compete at a higher level.”
He and his staff, along with Daboll, will spend the next few months doing just that. Searching for a quarterback — the Giants have the No. 3 overall pick in the draft in April — will be the focus.
“That’s obviously the No. 1 issue for us going into this offseason, is to find our quarterback of the future,” Mara said. “Whether that be via the draft or acquiring a veteran, it’s going to be up to them to decide, ultimately.”
While there isn't necessarily a playoff mandate in place, Schoen acknowledged that improvements must be made quickly. But the GM also scoffed at the idea that he could spend big in free agency and trade future draft picks to win now at the risk of the Giants' long-term interests.
“I would never do that,” Schoen said. “I understand we’re going to build this thing the right way. I’m not going to do a Hail Mary for self-preservation or anything like that. We have a plan in place that we believe in and we’re going to stick with that.”
Both Schoen and Daboll were hired by the Giants in 2022 and their tenure got off to a promising start with New York going 9-7-1 and making the playoffs, where they beat Minnesota in the wild-card round before losing to NFC East rival Philadelphia, the eventual conference champion, in the divisional round. Daboll was also selected the AP NFL Coach of the Year.
But with quarterback Daniel Jones — who received a four-year, $160 million contract extension during that offseason — dealing with injuries and inconsistency, the Giants struggled to a 6-11 finish.
Jones returned this season healthy but was benched for poor play after the team got off to a 2-8 start. He asked for and was given his release by the Giants, who then used Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock as starting quarterbacks as New York won just one of its final seven games — putting both Schoen and Daboll's job in jeopardy.
“I would say everything has got to be better when you win three games,” Daboll said.
“We stunk this year,” Mara said. “The results on the field were not what we wanted them to be. There were a number of factors that went into that.”
Not re-signing running back Saquon Barkley certainly didn't help, especially after he ran for 2,005 yards for the Eagles and challenged Eric Dickerson's NFL single-season record.
“If I’m sitting here a year from now and you’re asking me these questions, I’ll take the heat,” Mara said. “But at the end of the day, we’ve got to make a decision and we’ve made one.”
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Dennis Waszak Jr., The Associated Press
