Brian Daboll’s reputation as an offensive whiz rarely materialized in his disappointing Giants tenure. Ishika Samant / Getty Images

The New York Giants fired coach Brian Daboll on Monday after the team dropped to 2-8 to start the 2025 season, sources told The Athletic.

Daboll finished his tenure with the Giants 20-40-1 in three-plus seasons. Offensive coordinator/assistant head coach Mike Kafka will take over as the team’s interim head coach, sources told The Athletic. He will be the Giants’ sixth head coach since 2016.

The move to fire Daboll comes after team co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch made the controversial decision this past offseason to give Daboll, as well as general manager Joe Schoen, another year to try and turn things around in New York despite their ugly 9-25 record over the past two seasons. However, Giants fans knew Daboll entered 2025 on the hot seat and facing a ton of pressure to win.

Mara laid down the gauntlet after last season’s embarrassment came to a merciful conclusion, declaring that an improved product “better not take too long because I’ve just about run out of patience.”

Mara’s patience officially ran out with Daboll, though Schoen appears to be safe for now.

Daboll arrived in New York with a reputation for being an offensive whiz. While he was able to coax a decent campaign out of former quarterback Daniel Jones and the Giants offense in his first season in New York — Daboll won the 2022 AP NFL Coach of the Year award for his work that season — things have gone off the rails ever since. The Giants finished 30th and 31st in scoring in 2023 and 2024, as the team finished with records of 6-11 and 3-14.

A big part of Daboll’s plan to revitalize the offense was to remove Jones from the equation — the Giants released Jones in the middle of last season — and replace him with quarterbacks of his choosing. Daboll and the Giants signed veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston in free agency before making their move for the future in the draft.

After selecting pass rusher Abdul Carter No. 3 overall, the Giants traded back into the first round to select Jaxson Dart at No. 25. Daboll said from the start the Giants planned to go with Wilson at quarterback, allowing him to serve as the bridge to Dart, who needed time to develop. But the Giants pulled the plug on Wilson after three straight losses to start the season.

Dart made his starting debut with an electric Week 4 win over the Chargers. The rookie’s arrival seemed to signify a new era for the Giants and Daboll, who was adamant it was “my decision” to switch quarterbacks. Despite a mistake-filled Week 5 loss on the road in New Orleans, the Giants rallied with a huge prime-time victory over the reigning champion Philadelphia Eagles. But the momentum from the victory stagnated after the Giants allowed the Broncos to mount a historic fourth-quarter comeback in Week 7. Two defensive duds followed, then a late collapse against the Bears to put the Giants at 2-8 for the third straight season under Daboll.

Making matters even worse for Daboll, he lost the quarterback who had given his team life to a concussion in the loss to the Bears. While injuries are a part of the game, it always felt like it was only a matter of time before something serious happened to Dart, who had to be evaluated for a concussion in three of his first six regular-season starts before finally leaving his seventh start because of one.

It became clear early on that Dart, who plays with an aggression and a reckless abandon that endears him to fans and teammates alike, needed to be protected from himself. But Daboll never showed much inclination toward trying to do so and continued to oversee an offense that left his QB repeatedly exposed.

Along with the concussion checks, Dart entered the Week 10 loss against the Bears having previously appeared on the injury list with hamstring and ankle injuries. And those are only the injuries that have been documented. Dart looked like he had gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson in his prime after every start.

Despite the beating he was taking, Daboll made it clear he had no plans to change his approach with the future of the franchise. Perhaps Kafka will learn from Daboll’s mistakes and try and protect Dart moving forward.

Speaking of Daboll’s mistakes, the coach drew the ire of the league in Week 6 when he entered the medical tent on the sideline to check on Dart while the QB was undergoing a concussion check. The Giants were fined $200,000 because of Daboll’s antics. Daboll himself was fined $100,000 while rookie Cam Skattebo, who also entered the tent, was fined $15,000.

When asked recently if he felt pressure to win to prevent Daboll, the coach he’s grown close with since April, from being fired, Dart said he tried not to worry about things like that.

“I can only control what I can control, and I don’t want to look at things that way,” Dart said on Nov. 2. “We have a chance to win every game on our schedule. That’s how I feel. So, we’ve got to find a way, as players, the guys who are out there on the field, to make enough plays to win the game.

“The coaches, they call the plays, but a play can technically work against any defense or any coverage. The same thing goes on the defensive side. As players, we’ve got to be better. (Coaches) are not the ones out there on the field. We are. Us, as a team, need to be better that way.”

Unfortunately for Daboll, Giants ownership didn’t see things the same way as Dart.

At the conclusion of the season, the Giants will be searching for their fifth full-time head coach since Tom Coughlin exited in 2015. The Giants’ combined record since then: 53-104-1 (.338).

This story will be updated.

Nov 10, 2025

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