Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll have been working together since 2018, when the latter arrived as Bills OC to start the Josh Allen era. The quarterback’s rise placed both in position to work in leadership roles, and the Giants signed off on bringing the pair in to steer a rebuild. The Giants’ own QB plan has played the lead role in that rebuild not taking off.
Daniel Jones did not play well before a 2023 ACL tear doomed that Giants season, and the since-departed QB did not move back on track in 2024. That called into question the Giants’ decision to pass on three QBs (Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix) at No. 6 overall last year. Now, the team is amid another deep dive into a QB class — this one a lower-regarded contingent compared to 2024. How the Giants come out of this draft may play the biggest role in determining how much longer John Mara sticks with his current regime.
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Mara joined Jimmy Haslam in retaining both his team’s power brokers after a 3-14 season, but the Giants have trended downward since their surprising 2022 divisional-round appearance. That run his propping up a regime that has been unable to remotely approach that success level since. Entering Year 4, the Schoen-Daboll partnership may be seeing cracks emerge. Months after the HC and GM conducted separate press conferences — breaking from recent norms — on Black Monday, the New York Daily News’ Pat Leonard notes the two have veered closer to working as “separate entities.”
HC-GM disputes are commonplace in the NFL, especially among struggling teams, but if the Giants are not currently aligned, fingers could point back at Mara for retaining this partnership when a momentous decision awaits. The Giants mistakenly gave Jones six seasons, despite most of that tenure producing unremarkable returns, and are still attempting to recover from choosing the wrong Eli Manning successor. This offseason represents the Schoen-Daboll pair’s first chance to identify its own QB, but so far, a Russell Wilson–Jameis Winston duo headlines the depth chart. Giants will-they/won’t-they rumors regarding Shedeur Sanders are swirling, but the Colorado passer’s value may not align with the No. 3 overall draft slot.
Both Schoen and Daboll are at Colorado’s pro day today, per SI.com’s Albert Breer. This represents a course change for Daboll, who did not attend Miami’s pro day. Schoen said the fourth-year HC prefers to study QBs at private workouts, but after Leonard noted Daboll was not scheduled to trek to Boulder, his showing up — along with the GM, assistant GM Brandon Brown, OC Mike Kafka, DC Shane Bowen and player personnel director Tim McDonnell — is certainly notable. A seminal Sanders-or-Travis Hunter decision may await Big Blue at No. 3, provided the Browns pick Abdul Carter at 2. The Giants are not working out Sanders in Boulder, the New York Post’s Paul Schwartz adds, noting one could be scheduled before the mid-April deadline.
A scenario in which Schoen and Daboll take a best-player-available route, by choosing Hunter or Carter, over Sanders is logical after Mara left two embattled decision-makers in charge. A job-preservation play would stand to be strongly considered, potentially forcing ownership to intervene.
Mara’s decision to retain both, rather than make another quick-trigger firing, did not appear to satisfy all in the team’s building. Some hope existed at the front office and personnel levels, per Leonard, Mara would move on from Daboll after last season. We heard late last season Schoen and Daboll were not a package deal, and the owner has traditionally been more patient with GMs than HCs.
The 2022 Coach of the Year took over play-calling duties last season, despite Kafka serving in that role for most of his first two years on the job, but Mara suggested his HC give the play sheet back to Kafka in January. Some uncertainty about whether Mara or Daboll suggested it emerged, thanks to Daboll’s comments. Schoen has not done well in the draft since taking over, seeing early-round picks Evan Neal, Joshua Ezeudu, Wan’Dale Robinson, Deonte Banks, John Michael Schmitz and Jalin Hyatt have not offered solutions just yet. But ownership, in Leonard’s view, appeared to place more of the blame on the Giants’ coaching.
Daboll and Schoen’s separate pressers in January caught considerable attention from those inside and outside the building, Leonard adds, and this will be a storyline to monitor this offseason. Both decision-makers will be candidates for in-season firings should the Giants not show early-season signs of life.