Brian Daboll is out as head coach of the New York Giants.
The team made the move official on Monday, following a 24-17 loss to the Chicago Bears that left them at 2-8. The season is effectively over, and rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart is dealing with his fourth concussion evaluation in as many months.
That would be messy enough on its own. But the Giants are set to be featured on Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East, which debuts in December and will follow all four division teams through the final weeks of the regular season and into the playoffs.
Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka takes over as interim head coach for the remaining seven games. It’s essentially a seven-game audition for the permanent job, and the cameras will capture all of it.
The NFC East edition of Hard Knocks was supposed to spotlight Russell Wilson‘s first season as the Giants’ starting quarterback, highly-touted rookie edge rusher Abdul Carter’s debut, and the development of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart alongside the other storylines around the division. Instead, the show will document a coaching staff trying to salvage what’s left of a lost season while jockeying for position in whatever comes next.
This isn’t the Giants’ first rodeo with Hard Knocks, and their last appearance didn’t work out in their favor. The team was featured in the 2024 offseason edition, which provided unprecedented access to the franchise’s decision-making process, including its decision to let star running back Saquon Barkley walk in free agency.
That decision became a running punchline as Barkley rushed for 2,000 yards and won a Super Bowl with the division rival Philadelphia Eagles. Every time Barkley broke off a big run, clips of Giants owner John Mara saying he didn’t want to see the team’s most popular player in an Eagles uniform resurfaced on social media.
The offseason edition was so revealing that NFL Films executive Keith Cossrow acknowledged it gave NFL teams “pause” about participating in future editions. The unpredictability of which clips might go viral and how they might be used against the organization proved too high a risk for most franchises.
Daboll’s tenure ends with a 20-40-1 record across three and a half seasons, a steep drop from his 2022 debut when he led the Giants to the playoffs and earned Coach of the Year honors. The team lost multiple games this season after building massive leads, including surrendering a 26-8 fourth quarter lead against the Denver Broncos that turned into a 33-32 loss.
The decision to fire Daboll mid-season is notable for an organization that usually waits until the end of the year to make coaching changes. He’s only the second Giants head coach to be fired mid-season since Tom Coughlin left the franchise, with Ben McAdoo being dismissed before the 2017 season ended.
Dart suffered a concussion during Sunday’s loss after taking multiple hard hits on designed runs and scrambles, raising questions about whether the coaching staff was putting him in unnecessary danger. It was the fourth time this season Dart has been evaluated for a concussion, and he’s been contacted the second-most of any quarterback since being named the starter in Week 4.
The Giants will try to finish the season with some dignity while HBO cameras document every step. Whether that provides compelling TV or just another reminder of organizational dysfunction remains to be seen.