Report: Giants Did Background Work on Potential HC Options Before Retaining Daboll

Before the New York Giants decided to keep Brian Daboll as their head coach for the 2025 season, they did a little bit of research on potential replacement candidates.

Per The Athletic's Dianna Russini, the Giants did "some background work" on some people who could have replaced Daboll.

Giants president John Mara announced on Monday that both Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen were being retained after the team finished this season with a 3-14 record.

Russini didn't list the names of any candidates who the Giants looked into.

Mara maintained throughout the season that he didn't want to make any moves just for the sake of change.

"Obviously, we're all very disappointed with where we are right now, but I'm going to say one thing: We are not making any changes this season and I do not anticipate making any changes in the offseason either," Mara told reporters in October.

There are certainly strong arguments to be made for Daboll to lose his job. His nine wins over the last two seasons are as many as he had in his first season with the Giants when they finished 9-7-1 and made the playoffs.

The relationship between Daboll and Daniel Jones seemed to deteriorate this season, with one player telling ESPN's Jordan Raanan their dynamic was "weird" at times. Jones asked for and was granted his release by the team on Nov. 22, just 19 months after signing a four-year, $160 million contract.

Daboll will become the first Giants coach to make it to a fourth season with the team since the end of the Tom Coughlin era following the 2015 season. Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge coached a total of 93 games in their six combined seasons in New York between 2016 to '21. Steve Spagnuolo also had four games as interim head coach at the end of the 2017 season.

The Giants are 9-25 and have the second-worst point differential in the NFL (minus-283) since the start of the 2023 season.