EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- At the end of every season, New York Giants owner and team president John Mara talks about wanting to walk off the field with the feeling that his franchise is heading in the right direction. Progress, especially given his team's struggles over the past 13 years, is the logical litmus test.
Which makes what Mara said at the NFL annual meetings back in March that much more notable. He was asked what he hoped to see that indicated the Giants were headed in the right direction.
"It starts with winning more games," Mara said.
That is not going to happen for the current Giants (2-11 after a 6-11 finish in 2023), putting coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen in the crosshairs. Will they return? Should they return? These are the most pressing questions Mara's organization faces down the stretch.
The Giants are in jeopardy of enduring the worst single season in their storied franchise's history. They stare a ninth straight loss in the face with Tommy DeVito back as the starting quarterback on Sunday as 16-point underdogs at home to the Baltimore Ravens (1 p.m. ET, CBS), according to ESPN BET. This, one week after a plane flew over MetLife Stadium imploring New York's ownership with a message of "MR MARA ENOUGH - PLZ FIX THIS DUMPSTER FIRE."
It's fair to surmise this isn't the type of progress Mara was hoping for while celebrating the Giants' 100th season of existence. But here we are, and ownership (the Mara and Tisch families) now has a vital decision to make on the futures of Schoen and Daboll. They must determine whether this current regime, which has now backpedaled badly for two straight seasons, should stay or go.
Why they should not keep Schoen and Daboll
Has the bar dropped so low that a 2-15 or 3-14 campaign can be excused? This, following a mess of a 6-11 season where Daboll fought with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and needed to replace half his staff. The Giants were once such a proud organization that Tom Coughlin had to grovel for his job after his third year despite making the playoffs in each of the two previous seasons. Now, can a two or three-win campaign somehow be justified?
Daboll doesn't appear inclined to defend his case publicly despite the current results and inconsistency with his decision-making, whether it be on fourth downs or going for two when trailing by 14 points late in the fourth quarter. The nature of those decisions seem to depend on the week.
"We're just trying to get a win," he said about whether there is anything to prove to ownership over the final four weeks.
Daboll has a .372 winning percentage since taking over. Only Bill Arnsparger, Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge have won less frequently as a full-time Giants head coach. That is hard to overlook in a results-oriented business.
Daboll, the former Bills coordinator, came to New York in 2022 with a reputation as a QB guru and strong offensive play-caller. And while he got the best out of Daniel Jones that first year together when they made the playoffs and Jones was sixth in QBR (62.9), the rest of his work is spotty, at best. Daboll's offenses have been top 20 in points per game just three times in 11 seasons when he has been either the coordinator or head coach.
Jones played some of the worst football of his career over the past two seasons (44.3 QBR) and the Giants are currently 32nd in points per game (14.9). It's worse with Daboll calling plays this year than last year (15.6 ppg) when Mike Kafka was play-caller. There is nobody else for Daboll to blame after blowing out two coordinators, taking play-calling duties away from Kafka and benching and releasing the quarterback.
After speaking with multiple players, there seems to be an indifference to Daboll in the locker room. They're not necessarily playing to save his job (more so for their own personal pride), but they're also not blaming him for this season's debacle.
"Obviously, I'm a free agent going into this offseason so what they choose to do is up to them," wide receiver Darius Slayton said recently. "But I think he's done the best he can."
As for Schoen's roster, it has produced an 11-28-1 mark since the Giants started 7-2 with mostly former general manager Dave Gettleman's guys as the stars. That's a .275 winning percentage, fifth-worst in the NFL during that time. Despite Schoen claiming during the bye week that this Giants team is "close" -- having lost a bunch of one-score games this season -- they're -99 in point differential. That is second-worst in the NFC and sixth worst in the league while a handful of his former players (Saquon Barkley with the Philadelphia Eagles, Xavier McKinney with the Green Bay Packers, Leonard Williams and Julian Love with the Seattle Seahawks) are starring elsewhere to add insult to injury.
This Giants roster isn't all that close to becoming a real contender. One NFL personnel executive estimated it "will take 2-3 years" to build them into a contending team. Should it really take that long? Brad Holmes took over the Lions in 2021. They were in the NFC Championship by Year 3 and are the favorites to win the Super Bowl this season.
Schoen and Daboll have 2-15 staring them in the face with a less optimistic view ahead.
Why Schoen and Daboll should stay
Mara said in mid-October that Schoen and Daboll weren't going anywhere during the season and he didn't "anticipate" making any changes in the offseason. The Giants want this to work in the worst of ways. They want Schoen and Daboll to return. They don't want to be the fledgling organization that fires coaches and GMs every two or three years.
There is a case to be made that continuity is vital in order to build a winner, especially when ownership believes in their process and vision. It's no secret that the Maras and Tisches gave their blessing to finding a new quarterback this past offseason if that is what Schoen and Daboll wanted. It was right there on "Hard Knocks" for the world to see.
It works in Schoen and Daboll's favor that Mara admitted that he tries to be "more patient than maybe I've been in recent years." Admittedly among his biggest regrets, pulling the plug on Ben McAdoo so quickly after it fell apart in his second season following a playoff trip in his first. Shurmur and Judge each only lasted two years after McAdoo. Schoen and Daboll are finishing Year 3.
That could get this regime, which appears to be a package deal having made all the significant decisions together, the chance to draft and develop their own quarterback after Jones didn't work out this season. It's not as if Mara was against the idea of signing Jones in the first place.
"Listen, I'm still happy we gave him that contract because I felt he played really well for us in '22," he said only four months ago.
As for Schoen, he's modernized the infrastructure of the organization and scouting department. It bore some fruit with a promising '24 draft class led by wide receiver Malik Nabers and running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. While the roster might not be good, it is young. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the Giants are the 13th-youngest based on current 53-man rosters. The Giants have already started seven rookies this season.
As for Daboll, his best case to keep his job is that he maximized the talent in 2022 while leading the Giants to the postseason and a playoff win. He won Coach of the Year. That has to be buried somewhere deep beneath all this losing.
What could swing the pendulum
It can always get worse.
Anything seems to be on the table for these Giants. And that could be a problem for Daboll and Schoen over the final four weeks. Twelve straight losses to end the season would be brutal. A stadium filled with more Ravens than Giants fans on Sunday wouldn't sit well with Mara. And what about a late December home game against the Indianapolis Colts with thousands of empty seats?
There reaches a point where keeping the coach and/or general manager becomes bad for business. It can affect sponsorship, ticket sales, and the overall brand. That is when coaches and general managers get fired, when it's bad for ownership's pockets.
Still, the ultimate insult to injury could come in Week 18 when the Giants close the season against the Eagles. Just imagine if star running back Barkley sets the single-season rushing record against his former team. That could be the final nail in the Schoen and Daboll coffin.