New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll had an impressive first season. He and Joe Schoen worked to take the Giants from the bottom of the league to making a postseason appearance. Not too shabby for a first-time head coach, and people noticed.
Pro Football Focus recently ranked the top 10 head coaches in the NFL. Andy Reid topped the list, followed by Bill Belichick and Mike Tomlin. Daboll rounded out the bottom in the 10th spot thanks to “an immensely impressive first year as the Giants’ head coach in 2022.”
New York’s overall offensive expected points added per play jumped from -0.169 to 0.015 from 2021 to 2022. The team’s EPA per pass went from -0.197 to 0.026, and its EPA per rush went from -0.079 to 0.095. And this was all with mostly the same players from one year to the next. The difference was Daboll, and he has an even more talented team heading into 2023. He is a head coach who can raise both the floor and ceiling of a roster no matter where it is in its rebuild or winning window. Those are characteristics of a great head coach.
Not only did Daboll turn this team around, but he did it without making a lot of changes to the roster. The majority of the players who played last season were there the year before.
Daboll is a great head coach. He knows how to get players to buy into his plan, and he knows how to get guys to work together. All the talent in the world doesn’t matter if the players aren’t on the same page.
Daboll took a Giants team on its last legs, its starters replaced by second- and third-string players, and led them to the playoffs for the first time in a decade. That performance earned him AP NFL Coach of the Year honors in 2022, begging the question, should Daboll have been higher on this list?
