Brian Daboll‘s time in New York has come to an end. The fourth-year head coach has been fired, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The news is now official, per a team announcement. 
Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will take over as interim head coach, Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network report. Today’s news comes one day after the Giants dropped to 2-8 for the third straight season under Daboll. The team has blown double-digit leads four times during road losses this year, adding further to the speculation a change could be made before the end of the campaign.
[RELATED: GM Joe Schoen To Lead Giants’ HC Search]
“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,” a statement from owners John Mara and Steve Tisch reads in part. “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.”
Entering the 2025 season, Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen were widely known to be on the hot seat. The selection of first-round quarterback Jaxson Dart seemed to pave the way for one or both to be retained depending on how his development progressed. Dart has shown flashes when on the field, but the rookie suffered a concussion yesterday after being evaluated for one for the fourth different time dating back to the preseason. Criticism regarding the Giants’ handling of Dart has increased given the frequency of hits he has taken, with much of it being directed Daboll’s way.
No other changes are taking place at this point, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports. That means Schoen as well as defensive coordinator Shane Bowen – whose job security has also been questioned through much of the campaign – are safe for the time being. Changes on those fronts will be worth watching for after the year, but for now attention will turn to Kafka — the Giants’ second interim HC (after Steve Spagnuolo in 2017) this century — and his ability to guide the Giants to something of a rebound.
The Daboll-Schoen tandem was hired with high expectations after its success with the Bills. Things got off to a notable start, with the Giants going 9-7-1 in 2022. New York won a wild-card game and Daboll took home Coach of the Year honors. Since then, however, very little has gone according to plan. The Giants are on their way to a third straight season well below .500. Overall, Daboll’s tenure will end with a record of 20-40-1. Tension between he and Schoen was reported this past spring, and other internal matters like the less-than-cordial departure of former DC Don Martindale will leave an unwanted legacy in Daboll’s case.
The 50-year-old has worked as an offensive coordinator with four different NFL teams; he also held that role at Alabama for one year prior to joining the Bills. Daboll’s work in developing Josh Allen made him an attractive candidate on the head coaching market, and he joined the Giants with the hopes of maximizing Daniel Jones‘ talent. Both before and after Jones inked a four-year, $160MM pact, that did not prove to be the case.
Jones was cut midway through last season, one in which Saquon Barkley – who joined the Eagles in free agency upon playing out the franchise tag – enjoyed a record-breaking debut campaign. In the aftermath of the commitment made by Daboll and Schoen backfiring, many pointed to this past offseason as a logical point for at least one to be replaced. Immediately after the campaign, though, Mara confirmed both would be retained.
It nevertheless became clear at that point Mara’s patience was running thin. The draft provided the Giants with a potential new franchise passer in Dart, and as expected he quickly took over starting duties after Russell Wilson opened the year atop the depth chart. Daboll unilaterally made the decision to bench Wilson and replace him with Dart, a move many viewed as an attempt to avoid a firing. Schoen and Co. endorsed the switch, one whose impact cannot fully be seen given the season-ending injuries suffered by Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo.
Kafka will be tasked with taking charge of a shorthanded offensive unit the rest of the way. This will mark his first head coaching opportunity at any level. Kafka, 38, saw his role with the Giants vary over time but he has once again handled play-calling duties in 2025. It will be interesting to see if that remains the case over the closing weeks of the campaign.
Kafka has been lined to outside HC interest in the past, and his stock for the 2026 hiring cycle will of course be greatly influenced by his performances over the next two months. The Giants have not been able to find stability on the sidelines since the end of the Tom Coughlin era. Including Kafka, the team has employed six different head coaches since 2016.
Mara and the Giants generally avoid making in-season moves such as this. Indeed, Kafka is only the fourth coach to hold the interim title in franchise history. If he earns the full-time gig, New York will not be in the market for another reset on the sidelines. Failing that, however, the Giants will join the Titans (and, no doubt, other teams) in seeking out a new hire. Daboll should not be expected to receive a second head coaching look in the near future based on how his first stint went, but he could be sought after once more as a coordinator.
Mara finally woke up.
Two years too late. That team should not be 2-8 with the talent on hand.
Eh, nah, team still sucks, especially with the injuries.
While true, they’ve had three games where they had like a 95% win probability late in the 4th quarter and blew all of them. Yesterday, the Broncos game, and the Dallas game. They should have at least five wins right now.
Means nothing if Bowen doesn’t go as well. He’s the biggest problem on the coaching staff, for my money.
You’re spot on, man. Bowen is the worst.
Finally! Absolutely inept as a head coach and should never have been given another chance with a guy like Dart.
Too much of a hothead for one. When he ran off Martindale, which was the only reason he won that first year, that should have been a huge red flag. Another guy who learned the Belichick way and tried to operate that way of not knowing how to treat people.
All true.. But I think opting for a filed goal over going for it on 4th and a 1/2 yard yesterday was the last straw.
“When he ran off Martindale, which was the only reason he won that first year”
A) Martindale was not a good coach and was openly defying Daboll. That can’t happen from a DC. Martindale is his own brand of ‘hothead’. Please note that no NFL team scooped him up and he went back to the college ranks.
B) Calling Martindale ‘the only reason he won that year’ is flat out wrong. Giants offense was 15th in the league in points scored and 18th in yards. The defense was 17th in points allowed and 25th in yards allowed. Even if there wasn’t a personality conflict, Martindale should have been fired for performance reasons. Giants won because of Saquon and by piecing things together on both sides of the ball (and an easier schedule). Giving sole credit to Martindale is absurd revisionism. Wink sucked.
The Giants were the most overrated team other than the Vikings that year! The Eagles crushed them in all 3 games. Daboll only won COY because it was a NY Team.
I’m not the biggest Martindale fan, but the facts are the facts. The defense was the strength of that team, and Daboll even got called out by the owner for his poor personal skills.
lol good luck whomever goes there. Head Coaching WASNT the problem! Coordinators are a problem but have a feeling it’s higher up than the GM that’s ultimate problem!
Giants have some talent. Head coaching was absolutely a huge part of the problem. He hired the coordinators.
I think you’re right and it’s a cash flow problem. With Tish and the Mara family selling a 10% (100 Million) stake in the team recently, I hope that alleviates the problem until these realize they have to sell the team!
Ain’t so much cash flow as facing a potential fan revolt. Before the 49er game, the plane returned with the message “Mr. Mara Enough Is Enough — Clean House”. Today was the first step.
Reports were he was going to fire him after the Denver game but got talked out of it. It seems to be another case of the children not learning how to run a team from their successful parents.
I’m curious where you got 10%/$100M from. 10% might be closer to $500-600M.
It’s everything. Daboll was a problem. Bowen is a problem. The nepotism in the high ranks of the organization (Chris Mara, Tim McDonnell) is a problem. Kevin Abrams failing upwards is a problem. Schoen making bonehead roster mistakes is a problem.
More like cronyism. Jaxson Dart went to Ole Miss, same school as Eli Manning. Devin Singletary was in Buffalo when Daboll and Schoen were with the Bills.
I’ll buy it, though Dart seems like the real deal.
There definitely seems to be a lot of that going on in their organization which was happening a long time before now like when Dave Gettleman got the job because he was there for 20 years before going to Carolina. They don’t seem to hire the best people, that’s for sure.
They didn’t draft Dart because he went to the same school as Eli when almost everyone with both the Giants and Ole Miss has changed.
Daniel Jones’ head coach at Duke happened to be Eli Manning’s offensive coordinator at Ole Miss.
So yes, there is more than a whiff of cronyism there.
Chucky you’re conflating totally different things.
I don’t believe Dart was drafted simply because he went to Eli’s school. In the last 2 drafts the Giants tried to trade up for 3 different QB’s- Daniels and May 2 years ago and Cam Ward in the past draft. Dart was the 2nd QB taken in the draft and the Giants had to trade up to make that happen.
The only people who can’t figure out the Manning linkage are Giants groupies and their sportsball media cronies.
So now the cronyism is between groupies and the media? You seem further and further away from knowing what that word means.
Chucky, I believe Oooof is a Jets fan like you. So ‘Giants groupies’ doesn’t apply.
A lot of the NFL considered Dart a 1st round QB. Being from Ole Miss has -0- to do with that.
Yep. It’s not a very well run franchise. People don’t think of them that way because of the elder Tish and Mara, but in 2025, they are absolutely right there with the Jets, Browns, Raiders, etc. of the world because of bad ownership.
Perception doesn’t equal reality. Jets have stayed competitive and won games they had no business winning. Browns have all-league defense and bottom-barrel offense.
“Jets have stayed competitive and won games they had no business winning”
Maybe the funniest thing you have ever written here, especially when you’re trying to lecture about reality. The Jets stink and are as poorly run as the Giants are.
Both teams are inept,The Jets haven’t made the playoffs since 2010,the Giants last made the playoffs in 2022
I don’t know how much the Giants think of Jaxson Dart but it’s a start,while the Jets have Fields and Taylor and probably the worst qb group in the league
So. They still stink because they have terrible owners. Read that Athletic article from a couple of weeks ago with Woody Johnson quotes in it and tell me you’d like to work for that guy. He sounded all the way crazy.
Anything involving an NY team written by the Athletic should automatically be dismissed. They are completely biased against NY
To be fair, they’re pretty biased in general. Granted, that’s pretty much all media these days, so it’s incumbent on the reader to verify with as many sources as possible. That gets harder and harder to do, of course, with bias running rampant.
It was his quotes, lol. So now his own quotes are biased? It wasn’t an op-ed. It was just the chick quoting him and some other bad owners at the owners’ meetings talking about their teams. I think it was him, Haslam, and Mark Davis. talk about a who’s who of bad owners.
At least Davis was smart enough to bring in someone to help
In Brady. Time will tell if it’s a wise move
I actually agree with you about Johnson. That said, you can be biased and still use quotes to suggest your point of view. Normally, that’s done by omitting context or not gathering the quoted person’s point of view-even if that point of view is B.S., they should still get it. Again, I don’t mean to make an issue of the contents, I’m just not wholly impressed with the Athletic as a whole. It’s not the worst, but I’ve read some “journalism” from them that felt pretty heavily influenced by opinion and not exactly complete. But I digress, since that’s more of a gripe about them as an institution more than it is a gripe about this particular article.
In this particular case, I happen to think that the point of view is correct. My point actually was meant to read that the Athletic is just biased in general pretty frequently, not necessarily just against the Jets. I don’t think that they have balanced writing in their articles often, even if I do agree that Johnson is every bit the problem for NYJ due to his personality and decision making. Johnson has tons of other sources or supposed sources (mostly anecdotal, of course, which is hard or impossible to truly verify, in fairness to him) that describe similar behavior or comments in the past, so this corroborates some of that. It’s believable to me.
Finally. After your top two offensive pieces leave and immediately become MVP candidates, you probably shouldn’t be in charge of an NFL team.
Daniel Jones finished the ’24 season on the Vikings’ practice squad. Colts rescued him from NFL purgatory.
Daboll had him for his first three years as HC, and most of us thought Jones was the problem. He clearly was not.
Taylor and Warren rescued Jones
Jones had Barkley and Nabers. Sorry, you won’t find anyone in the league who thought Taylor and a rookie Warren were better players than those two before this year. Daboll blew it.
That’s on the Giants’ front office for giving a big contract to Daniel Jones after declining his 5th-year option. The Giant snub prompted Saquon to leave for greater glory in Philly.
Happy Holidays! finally
Man that offseason Hard Knocks continues to be epic
So whens the GM getting fired?
what a masterpiece, aging beatifully.
every decision we watched transpire, has ended in catastrophe
Hes going to land a coordinator gig pretty fast
And that probably won’t go well either. The Josh Allen experience is probably due to Josh Allen, and he’s probably more of what he was in Cleveland and Miami as an OC.
That is sad. What a great coach. His boy Dart will be upset so I guess good to do it while he is concussed and won’t remember who the coach was.
Four fourth quarter blown leads this year, two of epic proportions. They’d be 6-2 if they don’t lose those leads.
This plus showing no regard for Dart’s safety is what ended his tenure. So many ridiculous QB-designed runs. They ran them immediately after the blue tent fiasco vs the Eagles. They ran them against the 49ers when the game was out of hand. You’re supposed to be developing this kid. QB-designed runs don’t really develop anything. Dart has been checked for concussions four times this year and they’re having him bash his brains in on every drive.
In fairness to Daboll, those QB runs play exactly into what Dart is good at. Granted, Daboll was careless in the sense that it felt like he was milking that production to save his job (and not to actually develop Dart), but I will say that that scheme built off a lot of things that Dart did in college.
Other than that one addition, I do not dispute anything that was said. I wouldn’t even say that I’m disputing anything now, just adding that those plays took advantage of what Dart did well in college-which brings us to the other matter of not starting him over Wilson or Winston to take hits on a bad team. The reason that was done, as we all know, was to save Daboll and Schoen from being fired…which is the mark of terrible player development.
The Dallas loss was a shootout (and remember, Daboll was anointed “Coach of the Year” when he couldn’t beat them Cowboys).
Denver and Chicago were more inexplicable.
I don’t disagree but the Giants were up 3 on the Cowboys with 0:25 left kicking off. They should not have lost that.
They had like a 20 point lead in that Dallas game against a defense that has proven in subsequent weeks to not be able to stop anybody.
…and Mike awoke, and he had become a bug.
Haven’t we seen this movie before?…link to youtube.com
Wow, no one could have possibly seen this coming when they kept him on another year. Now they have to find a coach who believes in Dart and give Dart a new coordinator after one year. Pulling a Bears special.
I know it’s a results-oriented league and that the results haven’t been there, but I think Daboll is a good coach and would get the results going forward with the young talent on hand. It will be interesting to see who they bring in to be that guy.
What about daboll makes you think he’s a good coach? is it the 2-7 starts to every season, is it running out his defensive coordinator after they lead the league in takeaways, is it not scheming his players properly, is it not seeing development from high draft picks like banks, thibodeaux, neal, hyatt? Is it running your QB after he’s visited the concussion tent 3x previously, is it his play calling decisions like the flea flicker TE screen or to draw up 3rd down plays in front of the sticks, or is it the wild notion he’s a QB guru that saw Daniel jones take off the second he left? Is it the equally wild notion he had something to do with Josh Allen being a freak of nature QB?
After Daboll left BUF their offense regressed. The first year in NYG was a good surprise, but injuries really exposed their weaknesses the next few seasons. Not re-signing Barkley was embarrassing and the Jones situation is a really bad look. Dart is turning out really well, but those QB running plays are dangerous. The D is supposed to be good but isn’t. Too many highs and lows with this regime. Daboll will find another OC job and probably be fine.
The Barkley thing was more on Schoen, to be fair to Daboll. They did try, only for Barkley to reject their offer, and so they pivoted to Jones. Obviously neither one was going to do what they ended up doing today in New York, but with that said, the Giants tried to cheap out. The roster moves weren’t ever there to give any player a chance, which is on Schoen and the revolving door of decision makers before him. Mara did give them chances to fix their mistakes, which of course they didn’t, which shortens the rope for every subsequent decision maker before afterward.
I think that signing Barkley would have wasted his potential, in the end. It’s best for all parties that he went to Philadelphia, whether it’s apparent to New York or not. The real sin, to me, is the four year project to not build an offensive line at all. I get it, they tried with Neal, and I can’t blame them for that-practically everyone that he was can’t miss. But if they had done so, Barkley would have had a chance to capitalize on his prime years in New York, and perhaps Jones would have repeated or exceeded his success (perhaps not-his coaches the last two years have seemingly had great plans or knowledge that could have spurred him on). Perhaps not. But it for sure would increased those chances.
All the staffing drama and wayward defensive moves (such as the McKinney head scratcher) added on to what a catastrophic issue with that offensive line, in my mind, when we look at the nuts and bolts of why the roster’s bad.
His leaving happened to coincide to when Buffalo first started coming out of their Super Bowl window when they started losing players from their core. Look at the Eagles from the last three years and now for context. Daboll was OC for longer than just the Buffalo years, so I’d suggest looking into that instead of using him coaching Josh Allen since he even make Ken Dorsey look good for a time when it should be obvious by now he’s not qualified to coach anyone’s high school offense.
GM trying to save his job. He should have been fired today as well
Bowen has to go. Promote Marquand Manuel.
I would not have named Mike Kafka as the head coach. He has enough to do making sure that Jaxson Dart properly develops as a QB. Now he has to worry about the entire team.
Chicago did this last year (fired HC and promoted OC to HC) and there’s no way it was helpful to Caleb Williams’ development.
I think Kafka was named interim because who else would you name? Their DC is maybe the worst coach on the entire staff and I don’t think the Giants have the stones to promote a position coach.
If Belichick can dump his cheerleader girlfriend, could the Giants consider him? We know the team has talent on defense.
Not happening. Patriots totally collapsed in his final NFL season of 2023.
That ship has sailed. Even if Belichick dumps the gold digger. He’s past his coaching sell by date.
Here we go again! Hopefully we don’t hire a retread coach.
Sad that Dart has suffered 4 concussions all so Dabol could try n save his job…shameful! Giants need to take care of Dart and sit him for the rest of the season until he’s fully recovered
General lesson of life – “many want to be in charge, be the manager, yet not all have the skills or talent”.
Yet ‘owners’ that don’t recognize proper candidate skills deserve the employees they hire.
Heading back to Buffalo for the rest of the season as an advisor I hope
They should have dumped him last off season and gone all in on Ben Johnson. I think Johnson would have picked the Giants gig over the Bears without a doubt.
No, I think he would have taken Caleb Williams over no quarterback and a lackluster quarterback draft class.
Well…are you guys forgetting that Johnson wasn’t going to take any job where there wasn’t a “franchise” QB in place…..Williams went #1 to the Bears…while the Giants tried but didn’t have the draft capital to even get Drake Maye let alone move up to #1 and were in the process of getting rid of Danny Dimes….if you had the choice…where would you go.
So you wanted Johnson who Daboll was destroying 90% of this game?
The Ben Johnson who so far has taken a bottom five offense last year to a top ten offense this year?
please .. remind me the juggernauts the bears have beaten so far
I’m not saying the Bears are a Super Bowl contender or anything, but Ben Johnson sure looks like a pretty big value add so far.
The irony is that the Bears are beating tomato cans just like Daboll did that first year outside of the Raven win.
Most of that’s dude to a couple of games versus statistically the worst two defenses the league has ever seen. I stress the ever part. They literally won a game on a 60 yard walk-off TD pass with like 20 seconds left against the Bengals. That’s nearly impossible to do.
Giants will be playing in Orlando the next 4 years. 2027 you will share with Jacksonville in 2027. Mets Jets and Yankees is to be determined
Now I know what Russell & Jameis were praying for
Gruden would be perfect. 2-3 yrs and this team’s chasing rings
Mara is a big-time league guy. I don’t see him hiring a person who is wanting to air the dirty laundry of the NFL through his lawsuit. I understand why Gruden is doing what he’s doing, but it isn’t going to make it easy to get another NFL HC gig.
Blowing double digit leads multiple times will do that, but GM needs to go with him.
“Coach of the Year” couldn’t defeat Dallas home or away. Cowboys’ largest-ever shutout win was 40-0 over the Giants, at MetLife Stadium, in Daboll’s second season.
“Coach of the Year” couldn’t win at Philadelphia, one of the more hostile venues for a visiting team.
Yet he still received worshipful treatment in the press and on ESPN. The fans saw through it all and hired the plane to fly those messages over the stadium.
Nothing about the Boat Trip? You are growing as a person, Chuckster.
The Boat Trip took place in the reign of Ben McAdoo.
You were mentioning it well into the Daboll regime. I’m complimenting you for being able to finally move on! Though I will miss the rants.
3 games this year when defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory (Dallas, Denver, and Bears). A 4th when playing at halt a decent level gets a win (Saints). Inability to have reliable kickers- or rostering an active one. The team should at minimum be 5-5 if not 6-4, even with injury. That’s coaching. About time he was held accountable.
Hey Dan I think Dabol would make a perfect OC. Time to dump Morton, he was not liked at all
Joe Judge (QB coach at Ole Miss), Ben McAdoo (defensive assistant with Pats), Pat Shurmur (Deion’s defensive coordinator). Why not let the waterboy coach?
Surprising he lasted as long as he did, Mara should have fired him a year ago.
Giants are looking a lot better than years gone by mainly by drafting well.
Dart Skattebo and Nabers make a great start to the offence.
Even on the defence you have Dexter, Burns and Thibo.
They have talent and let major talent leave recently. This idiot had on paper one of the best defensive lines in football, the best young receiver, an above average offensive line once they got Neal out of the lineup, and they jettisoned Barkley, an MVP candidate last year, Jones, an MVP candidate this year, and McKinney, one of the best safeties in the league, yet he was winning four and five games a year. It’s 90% his fault.
He should have been fired after the Denver loss. He could have used clock, forced Denver to use time outs but no he scored on the first play. Their defense was spent and all they needed was a field goal.
Jaguars had a similar meltdown in Houston, where the Texans scored 26 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to win. Liam Coen is a first-year head coach and has Jax in the playoff places so no panicking there.
long overdue
Rich Bisaccia would’ve done a Better job than Daboll as Giants HC.