Blowing late lead in loss to Bears is final straw as Giants fire coach Brian Daboll
The Bears used to be on the other side of these. Now they're the ones pushing opposing coaches out the door.
The Giants fired coach Brian Daboll on Monday after his team blew a late lead Sunday in a 24-20 loss to the Bears. The Giants led 20-10 and had the ball with under seven minutes to play before quarterback Caleb Williams led two touchdown drives at the end to win.
Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, who played at St. Rita and Northwestern and has been a Bears candidate before, will step in as interim coach.
Daboll, 50, had been their coach since 2022 and was 20-40-1. The Bears interviewed him as part of their coaching search in 2022 before settling on Matt Eberflus, who was fired last season.
“The past few seasons have been nothing short of disappointing, and we have not met our expectations for this franchise,” Giants co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch said in a statement. “We will work to deliver a significantly improved product.”
It was mostly expected that Daboll was headed toward the exit, and he was asked Sunday about his job security, but still a mild surprise that the Giants fired him 10 games into quarterback Jaxson Dart’s rookie season.
Both first-round quarterbacks have endured early upheaval. The Titans fired coach Brian Callahan after just six games with No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward.
The Bears, of course, fired Eber-flus 12 games into quarterback Caleb Williams’ rookie season.
The Giants never finished higher than third place in the NFC East under Daboll and were 18th, 29th and 30th in total offense in his first three seasons.
In the 14 seasons since they beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, they’ve made the playoffs twice and won one postseason game. Their next coach will be their fifth in 11 seasons.
The Giants announced they will keep general manager Joe Schoen, who also was a candidate for the Bears in 2022 before they hired Ryan Poles, because he “has assembled a good young nucleus of talent, and we look forward to its development,” Mara said.
f talent, and we look forward to its development,” Mara said.