Giants Regime Losing Credibility Amid Baffling Management Decisions

When the New York Giants hired Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll from Buffalo, they were tasked with the challenge of resurrecting and properly managing an organization that had let itself fall from a proud Super Bowl-winning franchise to the depths of ineptitude that hadn’t been seen since the 1960s. 

In the first year of their second partnership, the regime’s stock rose early and fast. The Giants were a surprisingly competitive team when many thought they would be in the first year of a multi-season rebuild. They won nine games, some in comeback fashion, and stole a playoff victory on the road for the first time in six seasons.

Since that overachieving debut, the Giants have taken several steps backward and that goes beyond the results on the scoreboard. They’ve fallen from nine wins to six in 2023 and are staring a three or four-win campaign in the face this fall, but the struggles are due to much more than the talent being put on the field every Sunday. 

The bigger issue tends to come down to coaching decisions and poor roster management, both factors that have impacted the team to some extent in the last two years. It was the subject last offseason when the Giants parted ways with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale amid an internal feud with Daboll while facing calls to remove Mike Kaka from play-calling on the offensive side after his system wasn’t aggressive enough. 

Just two weeks into the 2024 season, the issues are rearing their ugly heads again, and this time, they cost the Giants a win during one of the most critical games on a schedule that is only getting tougher. Just one play into their 21-18 loss to the Washington Commanders, New York lost kicker Graham Gano to a hamstring injury and was forced to play the rest of the game without any field goal attempts.

What’s worse, the Giants were privy to Gano’s situation two days before the game happened. On Friday, the Giants placed their 37-year-old kicker, who is coming off a knee injury in 2023 that required surgery, on the injury report for a groin injury that limited his ability to function at his normal level in practice. 

Still, the two sides decided to “fight through” the issue instead of properly evaluating whether they should consider calling up their other kicker—Jude McAtnamey—from the practice squad to backup Gano during the contest. It was a decision that blew up in their face, as Gano tried chasing down Austin Ekeler and pulled his right hamstring to exacerbate his injury.

The Giants went the rest of the afternoon unable to attempt any field goals or extra points, with punter Jamie Gillan missing a kick after the team’s first touchdown by Devin Singletary. They ultimately left five points on the table and with poor defense, Washington steadily chipped away at the lead to steal the win at the buzzer. 

By having this occur for the second time in two seasons, the Giants regime has developed some serious issues in roster management. They went into the game with just 52 players on the roster after Chase Cora was waived and Gunner Olszewski was sent to the reserves/injured list with an injury. Instead of filling the roster with a backup kicker as insurance for Gano, they went along and simply hoped that the veteran would pull through as he has for years at the NFL level. 

Sure, as Daboll pointed out in his postgame press conference, Gano would end up hurting his hamstring during the opening kickoff and not his groin. Yet, with a compromised kicker, one thing always leads to the next, and for a player of his age that should have been enough to warrant a backup plan to salvage the Giants' efforts on Sunday. 

In the end, that decision is 100 percent on him and the front office. In the last couple of years, Daboll has too often tried to shove blame towards other areas of the organization—injuries, the offensive line, talent, coaching staff situations, and the list goes on. It’s getting to the point where people might have to start questioning the abilities of the duo that has been in charge of elevating the team for three seasons now. 

Daboll’s defense of the situation isn’t adding to his innocence either. After the first two games of the year, Daboll has been caught looking and sounding testy with reporters for fairly asked questions, including those about the decision to trust Gano’s health and his concern about his job security. 

"I can't tell you that he's going to get hurt chasing a 100-yard kickoff return that was called back," Daboll proclaimed about the timing of Gano’s injury and his status before the game. 

Nobody was trying to imply that Schoen and Daboll have to see into the future to prevent these problems, but the reality was they had a developing situation that they should've planned for. Especially when there's space on the active roster that could have added depth. That is not something sound leadership does. 

It is very hard to start throwing the darts at two men, who in their first year, looked like they had the franchise heading back in the right direction. The fanbase has been left to trust Schoen and Daboll with all the decisions they make, easy or not, as there is the hope it eventually builds the roster back to being a consistent contender in the NFL as was the case for decades since the 1980s.

Now, those decisions are heading in the direction of ineptitude again. That should be concerning to all, including the head coach himself who is feeling the heat boiling under his seat. As things head into week 3, Daboll’s credibility is still hanging on, but with more disasters like Sunday’s, the story of his tenure in New York could become grave fast.  

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