January 06, 2025
Kevin R. Wexler/Imagn Images
Larry, Curly, and Moe, I mean... John Mara, Joe Schoen, and Brian Daboll
After a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles' backups on Sunday, New York Giants owner John Mara announced on Monday that he is running it back with head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen in 2025.
Statement from Giants President John Mara pic.twitter.com/NwetfGG2In
— New York Giants (@Giants) January 6, 2025
The rest of the NFC East rejoices.
Daboll and Schoen were both hired during the 2022 offseason, and there were immediate results, as the Giants finished with a 9-7-1 record, and a trip to the playoffs. It's been a steep downhill trajectory since. In 2023, they finished 6-11 with a -141 point differential, before a disastrous 2024 season during which they finished 3-14 with a -142 point differential. Their three-year tenure has resulted in a cumulative record of 18-32-1 (0.370).
Schoen took over for Dave Gettleman, a dinosaur GM who did not seem to understand modern NFL trends or analytics. Gettleman ran the Giants' front office from 2018 to 2021, a four-year span that produced a 19-46 record, and four double-digit loss seasons. An uninspired Pat Shurmur began the Gettleman era as the Giants' head coach, and gave way to Joe Judge, who was in over his head. The bar for improvement was extraordinarily low, but Daboll and Judge have largely put a product on the field that has been just as bad.
Schoen's biggest mistake was his 2023 re-signing of Daniel Jones, who dinked-and-dunked his way to an improbable playoff berth, while Saquon Barkley did most of the heavy lifting. That offseason, the Giants were faced with three unappealing decisions on Jones' future:
During the 2024 offseason, Barkley signed with the NFC East rival Eagles in free agency.
Later that offseason, when the Giants were on the clock at pick No. 6 in the 2024 draft, there were three quarterbacks available who ultimately got drafted within the first 12 picks. They were Michael Penix (8th overall to Atlanta), J.J. McCarthy (10th overall to Minnesota), and Bo Nix (12th overall to Denver). The Giants obviously didn't think enough of Penix, McCarthy, or Nix to make any of them their new franchise quarterback.
They appeared on the first-ever front office version of HBO's Hard Knocks, and it was revealed that they had interest in North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. They had discussions with the Patriots about moving up for Maye — and the Patriots seemed willing to deal — but Schoen never made a reasonable offer. The Giants' decision to pass on those quarterbacks was likely at least partly guided by Jones' albatross contract.
• S Xavier McKinney: Like Barkley, McKinney will almost certainly be an All-Pro this year. He is only 26 years old and could have been a homegrown foundational piece.
• S Julian Love: Love has become one of the best safeties in the NFL for the Seahawks.
• S Jabrill Peppers: Peppers became a really good player in New England.
• CB James Bradberry: This maybe looks like a bad example at the moment given the bad season Bradberry had in 2023, but he was an All-Pro in 2022 who helped the Eagles get to the Super Bowl.
• TE Evan Engram: Engram had 187 catches for 1,729 yards and 8 TDs in two seasons after leaving the Giants to play for the Jaguars.
Schoen's free agent signings have been atrocious. In 2022, Schoen added the following outside veteran players:
The trade for Burns was widely heralded for some weird reason, even with the Giants giving him a five-year contract worth $141 million in addition to the 39th overall pick and some added draft capital that went to Carolina to seal the deal. Burns had single-digit sacks (8.5) in 2024.
Schoen is batting like 0.037.
The Giants' 2022 and 2023 drafts were awful. The 2024 draft class has been productive, headlined by WR Malik Nabers, but many of the drafted rookies had to play out of necessity because the team was so stripped of talent otherwise. And, you know, they didn't land a quarterback.
But beyond the team's record and the good players lost and crappy players gained, the Giants just looked embarrassing for the entirety of the Hard Knocks series that featured them last summer. The biggest "HOLY SHIT!" moment for me in a series full of them had to be when Schoen was asking Daboll ON THE MORNING OF THE FIRST DAY OF FREE AGENCY what he thought the team's biggest needs were. Watch the following two videos. I mean... 🤯🤯🤯
Like what were you doing the last few months that you woke up on the first day of free agency and thought, "Hey maybe we should discuss team needs?!?"
Mara made clear on Monday that he will not have much patience for further failure (via @SNYGiants):
As such, you can be nearly certain that Schoen and Daboll will draft a quarterback and hope that that guy can be a savior. Unfortunately for them, it appears to be a weak quarterback class with no consensus top guy. A look at some draft analysts' top 25 big boards, and where the top quarterbacks fall on their lists:
| Quarterback | Brugler | Kiper | Yates | PFF |
| Shedeur Sanders, Colorado | 23 | 3 | 14 | 21 |
| Cam Ward, Miami | 16 | 8 | 17 | 14 |
| Jalen Milroe, Alabama | 22 | NR | 24 | 12 |
| Quarterback | Brugler | Kiper | Yates | PFF |
| Caleb Williams | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Jayden Daniels | 8 | 2 | 2 | 21 |
| Drake Maye | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| J.J. McCarthy | 21 | 15 | 17 | NR |
| Michael Penix | NR | 24 | NR | NR |
They're also picking third, behind a pair of teams in the Titans and Browns that desperately need quarterbacks.
There's a decent chance the Giants will only be able to select the third-best quarterback in a weak quarterback class, and a year from now Mara will be hiring a new head coach and GM who don't want whatever quarterback Schoen and Daboll pick.
In summary, the Giants are a clown show organization that has no idea what they're doing, and they're going to continue to put an awful product on the field for the foreseeable future.
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