Giants' Brian Daboll returns to play-calling Thursday. But who will be running those plays?
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones and head coach Brian Daboll during a joint practice with Detroit Lions in East Rutherford, N.J., on Tuesday. Credit: Ed Murray
To play or not to play?
That is the question facing coach Brian Daboll, who will decide whether quarterback Daniel Jones and other starters will be on the field in Thursday night’s exhibition opener against the Detroit Lions at MetLife Stadium.
Perhaps this isn’t a difficult call for Daboll, who saw Jones and his teammates compete against the Lions over two days of practices at the Giants' practice facility. Jones seemed to hold up especially well.
"Yeah, I'd like to play [in the game],” Jones said after practice Monday. “I think, at the end of the day, that's the coach's decision, and I'll do whatever [Daboll] thinks.”
It seems likely that Jones and other prominent players will be on the sideline Thursday night. Daboll could believe the on-field work completed by Jones and other starters on the practice fields against the Lions was a sufficient early test.
Jones has looked good coming off a torn ACL sustained in Week 9 of last season.
He jumped into the middle of a scrum during Monday’s practice to defend center Greg Van Roten when he was getting roughed up on the ground.
“Just stay out,” Daboll told Jones then.
The practices with the Lions were chippy and held under searing heat. That wide receiver Malik Nabers was often dominant in those conditions said a lot about the rookie.
The NFL confirmed Wednesday that the Giants and the Lions organizations were each fined $200,000 for multiple fights that broke out between the clubs on the practice field. All NFL teams were reminded in a memo sent last month that fighting and unprofessional conduct at joint practices would not be tolerated.
For Daboll, the Thursday night game will represent a return to his roots as offensive play-caller, a role he held in Buffalo before being hired as the head coach of the Giants.
This spring and summer, Daboll has been running the offensive meetings. Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, who was previously in the role of play-caller, was promoted to assistant head coach this past offseason and has taken on a modified role.
Daboll’s history as an offensive play-caller includes with the Bills in 2020, when he was voted the AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year. The Bills finished 13-3 and won the AFC East.
The Giants are coming off a 6-11 season and scored 15.6 points per game, which ranked 30th in the league, while their defense gave up 23.9 (26th).
When he was a coordinator, Daboll could spend time with the offense, including the quarterback, while the defense was on the field. As a head coach, it will be interesting to see how he balances that. This offseason, Daboll hired Shane Bowen as defensive coordinator.
Daboll concedes there could be an adjustment period.
“That’s what these [three] preseason games are for,” Daboll said.
The coach said fulfilling his other duties will remain “pretty much all the same."
“Obviously, give the play to the quarterback, but everything else I foresee being very similar," Daboll said. "But that’s why we're doing it. That's what the preseason is for.”
According to the Giants, the group of head coaches who call their team’s offensive plays include San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan, Miami’s Mike McDaniel, Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell, Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur, Dallas’ Mike McCarthy, the Rams’ Sean McVay and Andy Reid in Kansas City.
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.
