Giants' Brian Daboll has built a level of trust with his players
New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll after clinching a playoff spot against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig
As Giants players convene as a team Wednesday morning for the first time this week, coach Brian Daboll is expected to include discussion of Damar Hamlin, who suffered cardiac arrest on the field Monday night in Cincinnati.
Daboll and Giants general manager Joe Schoen know Hamlin from their time in Buffalo. Both Daboll and Schoen appreciated the way Hamlin, a second-year safety, went about his business as a young player in the league.
Giants cornerback Jason Pinnock played collegiately with Hamlin at Pittsburgh.
After the Giants on Sunday clinched the sixth playoff seed, Daboll gave the players Monday and Tuesday off.
It is a certainty that the Hamlin injury and his situation has resonated with players, and other personnel, on all 32 teams.
As the Giants prepare for the road ahead, the availability of individual players will be in the forefront of the conversation. With the Giants locked in as the sixth seed in the NFC, Daboll could choose to rest certain prominent players against the Eagles on Sunday.
“I just try to consider what we think is best for our team,” Daboll said. “That’s what we’ll always consider.”
If he does rest players, defensive lineman Leonard Williams, who has tried to play through a neck injury, would be a likely candidate. So could fellow defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, who has logged among the most snaps in the league at his position.
Whether Daboll would decide to rest players such as quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley should become clear in the days ahead.
For Daboll, the priority will be having his team as healthy and ready as it can be for the Giants' first playoff game since 2016.
This has been a remarkable run by the Giants, one largely unexpected at the start of the season. While the tandem of Daboll and Schoen inspire confidence, making the playoffs in their first year represents a significant accomplishment.
You get the feeling that Daboll and his relationships in the locker room set the stage for that opportunity.
“I think the most important thing when you’re starting over in a new program — whether you’re a position coach, a coordinator or in this case a head coach — is to really let the players get to know you as well,” Daboll said. “It doesn’t take a day, or I can’t give you an exact date of each guy. I think each relationship on the team is a little bit different. I think you treat everybody fairly, not the same. I think just like in the outside world, not in this building, you have different relationships with different people.”
By personalizing his messages, it’s clear Daboll won over the locker room. By treating players with respect, he earned their trust.
And by getting to know the players as individuals, he showed great understanding of what it takes to coach in the NFL nowadays.
“There’s things that make one person tick versus the other one, maybe not so much,” Daboll said. “I think you’re just kind of getting a feel for who the person is, and really more importantly, let them know who you are so you can build a level of trust.
“I couldn’t tell you if it was an OTA or a training camp practice, but each guy, probably, is a little bit different. And I think until you can build that level of trust — the player with the coach, the coach with the player — you’re kind of just spinning your wheels a little bit until you can do this.”
There has been little wheel-spinning in East Rutherford this season.
The messages have been clear. So have the results.
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.