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The New York Giants hired Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll to fill one of the NFL’s nine vacant head coaching spots early this offseason.
ESPN thinks it was a good idea.
Two of the former world-wide leader’s insiders in Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler handed out grades to each of the teams that named new bench bosses. Daboll to the Giants earned positive reviews from both.
Here’s how both Graziano and Fowler broke down Daboll to the Giants:
Graziano: B-. I’ve been trying to be consistent and take some points off when guys are hired who haven’t done the job before, because we really don’t know how he’s going to do until he does it. But I did give Daboll a little bump over the first two guys who were hired this cycle (Hackett and Eberflus) because of how important Jones is to the Giants’ future. Daboll has also worked for both Bill Belichick and Nick Saban — though the last Giants head coach did as well.
Fowler: A-. It’s smart of the Giants to follow the Buffalo model. It’s working. And based on the GM who was hired, Daboll was the wisest choice. The fit is there. Now let’s see what Daboll can really do. That he has coached virtually every position on the field over the past two decades should help his transition, and he has been a viable head-coaching candidate for a few years now. It’s his time.
For what it’s worth, such grades to new head-coaching hires are usually pointless. When Buffalo hired Sean McDermott, it was considered one of the worst hires of the 2017 cycle.
How do those predictions look now?
Still, so far the pair of analysts have only handed out higher marks to one other hire: Doug Pederson to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Both put that move in the ‘A’ range.
But Daboll slotting in behind that is not a bad look for the Bills. Even with the better marks for the Jags, Daboll’s move to New York is still held in high regard.
Clearly much of that has to do with shaping his new quarterback in Daniel Jones into something similar to Josh Allen. Or at least the hope that he can do that.
That’ll be easier said than done, but there already appears to be some early belief that Daboll can do it.
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