Brian Daboll Turns Giants' Focus to Year 2

Don't expect Giants head coach Brian Daboll to rest on his laurels after an impressive NFL coaching debut last year.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Mar 29, 2023 10:30 AM EDT

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New York Giants

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll, the reigning NFL Coach of the Year, will undoubtedly remember his first season as an NFL head coach for the rest of his life.

Well, sort of. Because with the 2023 league year underway and with the organization’s focus on the future, there won’t be much time for the 47- year-old Daboll to reflect on the 9-7-1 season his first ever NFL team recorded nor the postseason berth that resulted, in his words, the Giants being “smoked in the playoffs.”

"It starts all over," Daboll said during this week’s league meetings when asked about the bar set for 2023. "I don't get that far down the road. Just focus on today. Try to get better at the things we can get better at. We have a long way to go in terms of time, and we have a long way to go in terms of improvement.”

That’s not just Daboll being modest. That’s pretty much a fact. The Giants run defense, for example, ranked 27th by the end of last season. The team also ranked last in terms of explosive plays on offense.

So it was no surprise that general manager Joe Schoen sought to improve those areas. For the run defense, he added interior defensive lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches to provide depth and inside linebacker Bobby Okereke, the latter an every-down linebacker.

On offense, he acquired tight end Darren Waller, who, when healthy, is one of the best tight ends in the game. He also added speedster Parris Campbell at receiver to give quarterback Daniel Jones two big, explosive targets in the passing game.

He also signed former Bills tight end Tommy Sweeney, known for his run-blocking prowess, to shore up one of several sneaky needs on the team.

And speaking of Jones, they gave him a new four-year contract while also managing to retain running back Saquon Barkley on the franchise tag, at least for now.

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There were also other moves to retain key personnel, namely coordinators Mike Kafka and Wink Martindale, both of whom were head coaching candidates. The team also re-signed receivers Isaiah Hodgins and Darius Slayton, two of their leading pass-catching targets last year. They retained the underrated Matt Breida to back up Saquon Barkley and defensive lineman/outside linebacker Jihad Ward to provide depth at edge rusher.

Those moves, at least on paper, suggest a much improved Giants team, but Daboll was quick to caution that what happened last year doesn’t necessarily guarantee a repeat the following year.

“What you do one year has no correlation to what you do the next year. What you do one game has no correlation to what you do the next game,” he said.

“I'm not saying we're starting at ground zero because they know our system, and there's a lot of things they know more than they knew last year, but in terms of where we're at and the things we've got to do, we've got a long climb ahead of us."