The Giants can’t tie Brian Daboll’s job security to the success or failure of Daniel Jones.
They want Daboll to develop Jones like he helped Bills quarterback Josh Allen blossom in Buffalo, which is a natural expectation in
Allen’s development is why Daboll was such a hot head coaching candidate in the first place and it’s the main reason the Giants offered him this job.
But John Mara, Steve Tisch and can’t make Daboll’s employment here contingent on whether or fizzles out.
The best-case scenario is that Daboll fixes Jones and the offense and the Giants win.
If Jones can’t cement himself as the Giants’ franchise QB, however, they cannot scapegoat Daboll for it and make him the fourth straight head coach.
Ownership must give the Schoen-Daboll ticket time that isn’t contingent upon the success of a player they inherited from the previous general manager.
Just hearing Mara’s response to this question Monday was slightly unsettling. He was asked if the has patience and is intent on seeing Daboll’s tenure through even if Jones doesn’t succeed.
“I would say yes,” Mara said. “Daniel will get a chance next year, and we’ll hopefully be able to get a fair evaluation of him. And if it doesn’t work out, we’ll go to Plan B. But we have a lot of confidence that it will work out.”
While Mara answered in Daboll’s favor, he was also saying that he doesn’t think Jones will fail. But what if he does? Let’s face it: Jones is not Allen. Mara said so himself when he recounted all the Giants’ GM and coach candidates thinking highly of the Giants’ young QB.
“Every single interview was positive about Daniel,” Mara said. “Now, they’re not willing to say that they think he’s gonna be the next Patrick Mahomes or anything like that, but they were excited about the potential he has and the possibility of working with him. And that to me was reassuring because that’s the way we feel, as well.”
So this might not work. And the last five years have proven that firing a head coach is Mara’s norm when things go south.
“It’s gonna be hard [to stay patient], but I’m gonna have to force myself to do it,” Mara said later of the team’s building process. “I’ve run out of patience over the last few years, but I also understand that this is a long-term project. This is not an overnight fix.”
Tisch attended Monday’s press conference but continued to avoid speaking with the media.
Schoen, to his credit, said he “absolutely” hired Daboll to help him build something long term with the Giants, regardless of who the team’s quarterback is three, four, five years from now.
And the new GM no doubt has made his voice heard early here in East Rutherford, specifically in the hiring of Daboll itself.
“It wasn’t just Brian’s ability to work with quarterbacks,” Schoen said Monday. “It’s his leadership, ability to bring a staff together, develop those underneath him, his relationship with the players. We’re gonna try to build a team and a strong foundation right off the bat and a team that can sustain success over time. That’s the ultimate goal.”
To Daboll’s credit, in the context of Jones succeeding or failing, the new coach said Monday that he has “a lot of confidence in the conversations” he had with Mara, Tisch and Schoen before accepting their offer.
That sounded like Daboll saying that he’ll trust any assurances he’s received on expectations until he’s told otherwise.
“With all due respect, I’m not thinking two, three years down the line,” Daboll said. “We’re just gonna try to do the best we can, put the guys in a good position and establish a culture. But I had great conversations with these men that are sitting at the front. I have a lot of confidence in the conversations we had. Where we are, what happens, I’m just trying to get back to my office as quickly as I can to start hiring people.”
Daboll also stressed that it’s not fair to compare Jones to the Bills’ Allen when estimating how far the Giants QB has to go.
“Don’t know that answer,” Daboll said. “Four years ago with Josh we started together, we had consistency in scheme, consistency with the coaches, and it took time to build. It didn’t happen overnight. … To compare where Josh is with Daniel, I don’t think that’s fair to do to either one of those guys.”
Still, the Giants are doing more than hoping Jones can succeed here. Mara doubled down on Jones Wednesday, saying “I’ll be surprised if he’s not the [Week 1] starter.”
Mara was more direct than Schoen, as well, in calling Daboll’s work with Allen a significant factor in his attractiveness as a candidate.
“It was a factor for sure,” Mara said. “That’s his job here. We have a quarterback we have a lot of confidence in but has had some issues here mostly due to the way we handled him. And a big part of Brian’s job is gonna be to try to get the most out of Daniel and try to put us in a position where we can make a fair evaluation of him. We haven’t been able to do that so far.”
Daboll said Jones has “the right mindset” and “good size.”
“They’re a lot of things to like about Daniel, and we’ll just work with him and help him get better,” the Giants’ new coach said.
But Daboll also importantly noted that Jones’ growth and development isn’t just about Daboll.
“It takes everybody,” Daboll said. “It’s not just me. It’s the rest of the coaches, scouts, support staff, the ownership group. It takes a lot to raise a quarterback, if you will. He’s been around the block these last few years, and we’re gonna try to give him some stability.”
So everyone has a hand in Jones’ success or failure, which means if he fails, the blame shouldn’t be placed on one or two people. It belongs on the whole, even if that hasn’t been The Giant Way of late.
