Former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning shared interesting comments regarding head coach Brian Daboll’s down 2023 season at the helm of the franchise.
Per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, Manning hearkened back to the resiliency of his head coach, Tom Coughlin, when advising Daboll to stay the course and make the right adjustments in 2024, saying:
“Daboll, hey, you got to be yourself though, you got to coach the only way you know how to coach and I think he does a good job, and you can’t let one tough season impact the way you’re gonna be or the way you’re gonna coach.’’
Giants: Brian Daboll Needs to Avoid a Slow Start Like He Experienced in 2023
Daboll was on the cusp of leading the Giants on an unprecedented run in the second half of the season, but the team’s 1-5 record through their first six weeks put them in a hole that was hard to climb out of.
From an execution standpoint, the Giants’ ground game took much time to get comfortable finding the end zone. They had three rushing touchdowns through Week 7, as opposed to seven throughout the rest of the season.
Much of the backfield’s woes, along with the offense as a whole, were due to a putrid offensive line that could not protect Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor, or Tommy DeVito, allowing a league-leading 85 sacks on the season.
Eli Manning is Confident Daboll Can Bounce Back As He’s Seen Previous Giants Coaches Do
Manning understands good and well what it’s like to experience adversity following strong seasons. His Giants went from 11-5 in 2005 to 8-8 a year later and following their historic 2007 Super Bowl season, ascended to 12-4 in 2008 before regressing back to .500 yet again in 2009.
Through a fluctuating tide, Manning could rely on Coughlin to make the proper play-calling alterations while staying true to an identity that relied on a stout dual rushing attack and formidable front seven.
For Daboll, the 2022 AP NFL Coach of the Year can extract positives from this past season while expecting reinforcements at QB and the O-line in the draft, which will give him the leeway to get more creative in hopes that his existing and soon-to-be mobile quarterbacks will have more time to throw and be dynamic inside the pocket.