The big offseason headline plaguing the New York Giants has been the volatility of head coach Brian Daboll.
Reports surfaced in October that the hot-headed Daboll was at odds with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and that things were beginning to boil over.
There was a belief that Martindale could be shown the door in-season but that ultimately culminated in early January when the two sides “parted ways.” Of course, that came after a major blow-up between Daboll and Martindale, which led to the latter storming out of the building.
Since then, additional reports have surfaced that Daboll’s work environment is “toxic” and his outbursts have become “personal.” Some staffers have even anonymously warned potential assistants to stay away.
There have been rumors that Daboll’s relationship with Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott also reached a breaking point before he was hired as Giants head coach in 2022. And apparently, it goes back even further than that.
During a Friday appearance on WFAN, Connor Hughes of SNY reported that Daboll was passed over for several coaching jobs in recent years because of his volatility and his inability to justify his hot-headed nature.
“I talked to people that knew there were issues in Cleveland, when he was an offensive coordinator there. The same volatility and heatedness in Cleveland,” Hughes said. “Remember, Daboll went through several coaching cycles before he got his job. There were some of those issues that were turned up in those coaching cycles and coaching interviews, and they wanted him to address those. And he didn’t address them overly well in some of those interviews, which is why those teams passed on him despite his success in Buffalo.”
Hughes went on to note that this is something that could continue to “deteriorate” and it may result in offensive coordinator Mike Kafka attempting to leave for a lateral move (if he’s not hired as a head coach).
“There’s not a zero percent chance that he takes a lateral move. That’s not completely incomprehensible — that’s still a situation that could be out there,” Hughes said. “When you have a coach that loses all three coordinators and maybe two of which because they don’t want to work with him anymore, that’s a red flag.”
Like many others, Hughes believes Daboll is a good coach and capable of course-correcting in the same way Tom Coughlin did. And the Giants fully intend to give him that opportunity.
