Giant Must Make This Change to Unlock More from Offense in 2024

One of the biggest reasons the New York Giants hired Brian Daboll as their head coach in 2022 was his work as offensive coordinator with the Buffalo Bills, particularly with their quarterback Josh Allen.

Yet when the Giants hired Daboll, he took on more of a CEO-style role as head coach, instead turning the play calling over to Mike Kafka, who had never held that role at any level before being named the Giants offensive coordinator.

With Kafka at the controls, the Giants' offense finished 18th overall in 2022, averaging 333.9 yards per game and scoring an average of 21.5 points in a season in which the Giants enjoyed relatively good health.

Last year, however, was a different story. The Giants’ offense finished 29th (280 yards per game) and averaged 15.6 points. The offense was also wrecked by injuries to quarterbacks Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor, running back Saquon Barkley, left tackle Andre Thomas, and tight end Darren Waller.

As the Giants enter Year 3 of the Daboll era, all signs seem to point toward Daboll calling the plays this year. Those began with the head coach leaving the door open to that possibility at the end of last season and continued with the promotion of Kafka to assistant head coach, a role that could see him take on additional gameday duties, leaving him no time to handle play calling.

But more importantly for the Giants this year, the pressure is on Daboll to turn things around, especially with the team needing to decide after this year whether they want to continue running it back with Jones as the quarterback or exit from his deal once the guaranteed money is paid out.

When asked about taking on the play calling, Daboll said he hasn’t made a final decision and probably won’t until the end of training camp, but it not only looks like that will be the direction he takes, but it also makes the most sense.

“Realistically, the Giants hired Daboll because of the offensive work he did in Buffalo with Josh Allen and because he was a creative play caller,” said former New York sports columnist Gary Myers during an appearance on the Locked On Giants podcast.

“This is a dilemma that so many coaches face when they're coordinators, regardless of which side of the ball. They get a head coaching job, and they go, ‘Okay, let's delegate and just be the CEO of the operation.’ Well, in doing that, they take a step back from what they do best unless they've hired somebody they have complete faith in doing the things to get the offense or the defense rolling.”

The Giants have had past success with coordinators becoming head coaches in the CEO style. Bill Parcells, a Hall of Fame head coach, did it after being promoted from defensive coordinator because he had Bill Belichick to run the defense.

More recently, Tom Coughlin, who was an offensive coordinator at Syracuse from 1976-1980 before taking on position coach roles in the NFL, entrusted the Giants' offense to Kevin Gilbride for the bulk of his tenure with the team.

Then there have been head coaches of this team who didn’t handle their dual role as head coach and play caller, such as Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur.

Myers said that ideally, the head coach should be the CEO who delegates, but when things aren’t unfolding as hoped, sometimes drastic measures are needed to get it right.

“You’ll find a lot of coaches who have a specialty on one side of the ball that, when things aren't going exactly the way they planned for a couple of years, will take back the play calling on what they do best,” Myers said.

“Mike McCarthy, you know, did that in Dallas, and they put up big numbers last year but then failed in the playoffs.”

Myers stressed that if Daboll were to take back the play calling, it would not necessarily reflect Kafka’s ability to do it, given that he hasn’t had much offensive material to work with.

Rather, it’s a matter of the pressure to win being ratcheted up to the point that if Daboll is going down with the ship, he might as well be at the steering wheel doing what he does best.

If Kafka eventually moves on to a head coaching job, the Giants can at least be assured of having a consistent play-caller in the quarterback's ear if the change ends up being successful.