The Giants are a franchise adrift, and John Mara has no clue how to get them back on course

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — John Mara appears to be at a loss. After hearing the New York Giants co-owner defend the decision to keep general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll for a fourth season, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion.

Eighteen years ago, Tom Coughlin had to persuade ownership to let him stay on for a fourth season after consecutive playoff appearances. Today, that feels like a distant memory.https://wordpress.com/

Despite overseeing one of the worst seasons in the team’s 100-year history, Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch have expressed their confidence in Schoen and Daboll. The Giants capped off a dreadful 3-14 season with a loss to the Eagles’ second-stringers on Sunday, following a 6-11 record in 2023. Mara had stated earlier this summer that he expected the team to “take a big step forward” in 2024.

Instead, they took another step backward, and the on-field product has been hard to defend.

“We stunk this year,” Mara admitted. “It’s my instinct and my strong belief that we are going in the right direction. But it’s hard to say we’re heading in the right direction right now because, frankly, we’ve been going backward.”

Mara’s explanation of his confidence is riddled with contradictions.

He expressed belief that the team was on the right path, but also admitted, “I’m just about run out of patience.”

He claimed their process for making personnel decisions was “better than I’ve ever seen it before,” but couldn’t confidently state that the current roster was an improvement over the one they inherited in 2022.

“I’m not sure I’m all that confident that it’s that much better,” Mara said. “How can I say that it’s better if we win three games? We need to win more to prove that point.”

In one breath, Mara acknowledged that “we have a lot of holes to fill,” yet in the next, he said, “It’d better not take too long” to fix the team’s issues.

Mara also emphatically denied that the Giants were tanking at the end of the season — “If I had thought that we were tanking either one of those games, I would have fired everybody” — suggesting that he is “confident” in a team that was beaten by backups in their season finale.

It’s enough to leave anyone bewildered.

Clearly, the decision to keep Schoen and Daboll stems, at least in part, from ownership’s desire to stop the cycle of overhauling the front office and coaching staff every few years.

“When you make these changes — and God knows we’ve made them in the past and been impatient in the past — when you do that, you feel like you take one step forward, two steps back, and I just didn’t want to fall into that cycle again,” Mara said. “I wanted to give people a chance to build this thing the right way and get us where we need to be.”

It’s staggering that this is the duo Mara believes warrants patience. Yes, Daboll was NFL Coach of the Year for guiding the Giants to the playoffs in 2022, but things are now bleaker than ever.

The Giants suffered a franchise-record 10-game losing streak and failed to win a single NFC East game this season. They are now 1-12 against the Eagles and Cowboys under this regime. Even the worst seasons under previous general managers and coaches, like Dave Gettleman, Joe Judge, or Pat Shurmur, weren’t as disastrous as this.

So, as Mara reflected on another disappointing season — “Nobody’s more frustrated and upset than I am,” he said — he failed to provide any compelling reasons to believe that things would improve. The Giants have had the worst record in the NFL over the past eight years.

The franchise has tried firing everyone. That hasn’t worked. So now they’re hoping that sticking with Schoen and Daboll will turn things around. This approach raises obvious questions.

The pressure will be on Schoen and Daboll to perform in 2025, despite Schoen’s vow not to make desperate moves for the sake of self-preservation. Could this lead to an ill-advised free-agent spending spree, similar to Gettleman’s approach in 2021 or Jerry Reese’s in 2016? Or might the pressure to find a franchise quarterback push the Giants into making a hasty pick, like they did with Daniel Jones in 2019?

Whatever plan Schoen and Daboll presented to Mara last Friday, it likely centered on the quarterback situation.

“Obviously, the quarterback is the big issue,” Mara said. “I think once you solve the quarterback issue, a lot of these other things will improve as well.”

Mara made it sound so simple, it’s easy to forget that they’ve been trying to resolve the quarterback issue for six years. This regime already made a major misstep with the four-year, $160 million contract they gave Daniel Jones, which didn’t even last two seasons. Schoen doubled down on that decision Monday.

“I wouldn’t change what we did,” Schoen said. “When I reflect on how that went down with Daniel, it’s all about the information you have at the time.”

The Giants also passed on selecting a quarterback with the No. 6 pick in last year’s draft to take wide receiver Malik Nabers, who already appears to be a star. The road to finding a comparable quarterback is unclear.

The Giants hold the third pick in the 2025 draft, behind two teams in need of a quarterback, and there are two premier QB prospects. Mara’s urgency to turn things around makes it likely the Giants will pursue a veteran quarterback through trade or free agency.

“That’s obviously the number one issue for us going into this offseason — to find our quarterback of the future,” Mara said. “Whether that’s through the draft or acquiring a veteran, ultimately, it’s up to them to decide.”

The right quarterback could certainly go a long way toward fixing the Giants’ problems. But there are other areas that will also need attention.

While Schoen and Daboll seem to have job security, first-year defensive coordinator Shane Bowen is clearly under scrutiny.

“Quite frankly, I didn’t think our defense played very well this year at all,” Mara said. “I’m tired of watching teams go up and down the field on us. So, I think that has to be addressed.”

Bowen was the Giants’ fourth choice for defensive coordinator last offseason, after Wink Martindale’s fallout with Daboll. This position may be even less attractive this year. Candidates with other options will likely be hesitant to join a team with a head coach on the hot seat.

The defense struggled, ranking 21st in points allowed, while Daboll’s offense finished 31st in scoring. Changes could be in store on that side of the ball as well. Mara hinted that he had discussed with Daboll whether it was in the team’s best interest for him to continue calling plays.

After the Giants’ offense ranked 30th in scoring in 2023, Daboll had stripped play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. Now, Daboll may be forced to revisit that decision. And it may not be as simple as handing the play-calling responsibilities back to Kafka, especially with potential offers from other teams.

The Bears reportedly asked to interview Kafka for their head-coaching vacancy, and other teams may want him as an offensive coordinator. If Kafka decides to leave, it would be difficult for the Giants to block his departure a second time.

Thus, the Giants could see changes at both offensive and defensive coordinator positions, despite Mara’s desire to avoid starting over. This could fit with the confused and disjointed plan the Giants have been trying to sell without any tangible results.

“If I’m standing here a year from now, and we’re having the same conversation, I’ll take the heat for it,” Mara said. “But we still believe that it’s the right decision going forward.”

Maybe this decision will end up like Coughlin’s, who survived to see a fourth season and went on to win two Super Bowls. But after this season, the Giants seem further from those glory days than ever.