Giants' Brian Daboll, Jets' Robert Saleh taking control of their destiny
Giants head coach Brian Daboll watches play against the Texans in the first half of an NFL preseason game Saturday in Houston. Credit: AP/Eric Gay
Brian Daboll is notoriously tight-lipped in regard to depth charts and starting jobs, but on Thursday he strongly suggested that at least one guy has earned a new role for the team as the preseason winds down and the regular season looms.
It’s Daboll himself.
The head coach just about confirmed the least surprising and most obvious change to the Giants’ gameday structure — he couldn’t quite bring himself to actually make the proclamation — which will have him taking over the offensive play-calling.
“We’re moving in that direction,” he said, and when pressed further on whether that meant it was likely he’d do it when the games start to count in about two weeks he added: “Yeah, probably.”
As much as Daboll seems to want to shroud this decision in uncertainty, it’s far from a sudden veer. This isn’t like the times last season when Daboll grabbed the duty from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka during some of the more despondent games in a disappointing season. Daboll has been calling in the plays to the offense this season since they first appeared on the field in the spring, has been doing it all summer in training camp, and on Saturday night will do it for the third and final exhibition game.
It would be more jarring and absurd for him to now suddenly hand the headset back to Kafka . . . or someone else.
“We’ll take the next week and ultimately make the decision,” Daboll said.
By that he means the official announcement, not the decision. The decision was made months ago.
Adding the task to his duties is an illustration of how clearly Daboll understands the importance of this season for his tenure with the Giants and his legacy as a head coach. He worked almost a quarter century in the NFL to get his shot at this job and after two seasons of less-than-mediocre offense he’s hellbent against letting it slip through his fingers without at least giving himself the opportunity to save himself.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh talks quarterback Aaron Rodgers during training camp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., on July 25. Credit: Ed Murray
Across the field from him on Saturday will be the Jets and head coach Robert Saleh who has arrived at a somewhat similar epiphany himself this offseason. Saleh isn’t commandeering the play-calling on defense (his specialty) because his protégé, Jeff Ulbrich, does a fine enough job with that. Saleh and Ulbrich have very similar philosophies and fingerprints so any change there would simply be switching voices, not the actual calls.
But Saleh has taken a more proactive position with the offense this year, sitting in on meetings, watching his quarterback and coaches during practices and speaking up in regard to the playbook much more than he did a year ago when Aaron Rodgers and Nathaniel Hackett were essentially given that side of the ball to do with as they pleased.
Saleh has also learned, after three seasons on the job, that there is more to head coaching than hype speeches and having players like you. He’s purposefully altered the tone of this preseason to be much more arduous, more deliberate, and, with any luck, more apt for success.
“We're not trying to revisit the Junction Boys,” he said this week of the notoriously grueling camp run by Bear Bryant while at Texas A&M in the 1950s. But he also said he is trying to get away from the “country club” vibes that have invaded other teams’ camps . . . and maybe even his own last year.
“Last year wasn't normal,” Saleh said of the training camp that included an extra game in Canton, “Hard Knocks” cameras everywhere and the still new hoopla that Rodgers brought. “[This summer] felt like a normal camp.”
There’s no way of knowing how these decisions will pan out for the Giants and Jets in the coming months. But it is very clear that both head coaches have made conscious efforts to give themselves more control and more say over the courses they take.
For Daboll and Saleh, the days of delegating are over.
They are the ones in control.
If it works out for them they’ll deserve the rewards that come their way.
If it doesn’t, at least they will have the comfort of knowing their downfall wasn’t the result of someone else’s undoing.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
