The New York Giants have made a major change on the offensive side of the ball this summer with head coach Brian Daboll taking over as the team’s playcaller. Since Daboll was hired back in 2022, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka has filled that role for the Giants’ offense. But this summer at training camp, Daboll has been calling the plays, and will likely continue to do so in the regular season.
Brian Daboll has taken control of the Giants’ offensive meetings
Taking over playcalling duties is not the full extent of the Giants’ changes on offense, however. According to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, Daboll has taken over the offense entirely, including taking the lead in the offensive meetings.
“Brian Daboll is not just calling offensive plays this summer,” Raanan reports. “He’s also running the offensive meetings. This is different than his first two years as head coach for the New York Giants, when offensive coordinator Mike Kafka was the playcaller and ran that room. Kafka was promoted to assistant head coach this past offseason and has taken on a modified role.”
Despite being the new lead man in the offense’s meetings, Daboll explained that he is taking a collaborative approach:
“I’d say it’s our offense,” Daboll said per Raanan and ESPN. “We’re building. That’s what we’re doing. There are a lot of different ideas from a lot of different places. That’s really no difference than it’s ever been to me when I sat in an offensive room. … The difference is I’ve got a headset and I’m communicating with the quarterback and giving him things I see out there as he’s going. But other than that, it’s pretty consistent. It’s been a good process.”
The Giants’ offense ranked 29th in the NFL last season with 280.0 total yards per game and ranked 30th in the NFL with 15.6 points per game. It was a historically bad outing for Big Blue’s offense, a detriment on Daboll’s part since that side of the ball is meant to be his calling card.
Prior to being hired as the Giants’ head coach, Daboll earned his reputation as one of the best offensive coordinators and play-callers in the NFL during his time with the Buffalo Bills from 2018 to 2021. He was named the AP Assistant Coach of the Year in 2020 after leading the Bills’ offense to 396.4 total yards of offense per game.
During Daboll’s final two seasons calling plays for Buffalo, the Bills’ offense ranked second and fifth respectively in the league in total yards per game. QB Josh Allen had his breakout under Daboll in 2020 and has developed into a perennial MVP candidate since then.
The Giants are hoping that Daboll can have a similar effect on QB Daniel Jones who is returning from an ACL tear this summer. Jones had a career year in his first season under Daboll in 2022 and is aiming to replicate that magic and then some this season as the head coach takes on a larger role with the offense.
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Daboll is placing an emphasis on creating explosive plays
Part of Daboll’s approach to running the offense is an emphasis on creating more explosive plays. The Giants’ offense struggled to create big plays last season. They finished with only 44 completions of 20 or more yards in the air, the seventh-fewest in the NFL. They also only completed seven 40-plus yard passes, which ranked the fifth-fewest.
Veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton has welcomed the new explosive approach, citing a “different mindset” under coach Daboll:
“It’s a different person running the offensive meetings. It’s a different personality, different mindset,” Slayton said per Raanan and ESPN. “I think he’s definitely come out and made an emphasis on we need to make more plays down the field. We need to create more explosives — not just downfield but also catch-and-run scenarios, too. It’s something he’s really emphasized and I think it’s shown if you’ve watched practice. Even though we haven’t hit them all there has been an intention to try to get the ball down the field more.”
Former Giants offensive lineman Justin Pugh gave Daboll’s approach a glowing review on social media:
Players take to Daboll’s coaching style. Despite all the turmoil the team faced last season, Daboll never lost the locker room and remained in control as the group’s leader. Now taking more control of his offense, the Giants are hoping to find more success on the field, as well as maintaining the success Daboll has had off the field.
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The team has taken to Daboll’s new approach
Daboll is a true player’s coach. He has built that reputation throughout his lengthy coaching career which began in 1997. He has been with some of the greatest football programs of all time, working as an assistant coach in both the New England Patriots’ dynasty and the University of Alabama’s dynasty in the NCAA. His work in Buffalo developing Allen into one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL solidified Daboll’s reputation as a quarterback and offensive guru.
The Giants will hope to see some of that genius rub off on their quarterbacks, namely Jones, but also backups Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito. Jones’ future with the G-Men is uncertain, so emphasizing the players behind him will be important.
Raanan reports that Daboll has spent “a lot more” time with the quarterbacks this summer and that Lock added it’s the most he’s had the head coach around since he entered the league in 2018. DeVito believes this level of attention from Daboll will lead to more success for the offense this season:
“It’s awesome to have that group time with the head coach,” DeVito said. “It has been special. We’ve been learning a ton since OTAs. It has almost been a built-from-the-ground-up mentality. I think it’s been beneficial to us.”
DeVito burst onto the scene last season and quickly became a fan favorite. Despite his short stint of success, DeVito is the team’s third-string backup and his spot on the roster is anything but a guarantee. The second-year New Jersey native will aim to win the Giants over this summer as he spends more time with Daboll and attempts to lead the offense to more success during the preseason.
