Brian Daboll brought his magic to the Giants, and they’re already an NFC contender

The Giants have a special head coach.

We underrate what a great football coach can help a team achieve.

We pillory the guys with abysmal time management but, in the end, we see this sport is player-oriented. To an extent, the age-old saying remains true: it’s not the Xs and Os, it’s the Jimmies and Joes.

Regardless of the abundance of physical and mental gifts a team of NFL players have, they’ll ultimately go nowhere without a superb leader. Someone still has to steer the ship through rough waters. If said team is, perhaps, a year or two ahead of schedule like Brian Daboll’s New York Giants, then that captain can elevate their players beyond the sum of their parts.

Daboll finally cemented his place as a head coach in the NFL when New York became the first team to win a road game in this year’s Wild Card round, surviving the Minnesota Vikings in a 31-24 instant classic. That’s how much a playoff win can build your reputation. Advance in the postseason in Year 1, do it when you weren’t supposed to, and it’s obvious you have more arrows in your quiver than most.

The Giants’ 17-game regular season resume was impressive this year, don’t twist my words. There was a lot to be proud of. New York had promising foundational pieces leading the way this fall, and Daboll utilized them well. At certain points, it really was all sunshine and rainbows for the G-Men.

A revitalized Saquon Barkley blasted through contact like he was a rookie. Second-Team All-Pro offensive tackle Andrew Thomas plowed paths forward for a top-five rushing attack and kept Daniel Jones upright. 2022 top-five pick Kayvon Thibodeaux blossomed and menaced quarterbacks like the pass-rush terror he’s capable of being. Jones finally played like a starting quarterback who tilts the field. Darius Slayton and Isaiah Hodgins embraced secondary roles in an offense not built for them. Or any pass-catchers for the time being. (This might be more of a chicken and egg kind of thing, honestly).

But none of these young men’s individual success or the Giants’ team flourishing matters without the feather in their cap from the playoffs.

Well, that’s wrong. Let me restate.

Regular-season success matters, but no one outside of a deeply-invested diehard remembers late-October wins over the Jaguars in what might as well be an eternity in NFL time compared to the games that count. They’re key steps forward for rebuilding for young teams — New York has the NFL’s fourth-youngest roster — but they don’t become chapters people remember reading until playoff magic is established. It might not be fair, but a coach and a team are defined by their postseason output.

If you disagree, those Marvin Lewis years with the Bengals were so much fun for all the proper reasons, right?

And after a surprising run to the NFC’s No. 6 seed, the Giants already enjoyed a quality 2022. Pack it in, boys. Live it up. You’ve done your thing, and you should hold yourself in high esteem. To take the next massive leap forward — advancing in a win-or-go-home game — is a little ambitious. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

All Daboll’s Giants have done all season is help themselves to the spread at their leisure. This iteration of the Giants wasn’t supposed to become one of the NFC’s heavyweights overnight. Big Blue had won 20 games in the previous six years combined. Yet, with Daboll at the wheel, here they are, one victory over a season-long Super Bowl favorite away from a berth in the NFC title game.

Every recent New York coach had some fatal flaw to lead it to doom. Ben McAdoo couldn’t keep his hands on the reins. Pat Shurmur was out of his wits whenever he possessed the lead headset. Joe Judge was a steak-head doofus boosted by past proximity to Bill Belichick.

Meanwhile, Daboll and his offensive coordinator Mike Kafka salvaged Daniel Jones and turned him into a signal-caller the Giants might be able to trust in the long term.

Despite some uneven edges, Daboll empowered Wink Martindale to build a defense that can attack on its best day and still has room to grow.

A selfless culture where previously benched wideouts like Kenny Golladay are serving up clutch pancake blocks in playoff games is the handiwork of, you guessed it, Daboll.

Though I suppose no one should be surprised that the man who turned Josh Allen into a Terminator could take this much responsibility on his plate.

Daboll is not like recent Giants coaches. Heck, he might not be like other recent coaches on other teams, either. What the Giants have done this year isn’t normal. Even if they fall short of the divisional rival Philadelphia Eagles next weekend, Daboll’s players will have already made an imprint.

They’ve already announced their presence to the football world, with the understanding improvements are still on the horizon. The last Giants’ playoff win before Sunday night was the organization’s Super Bowl 46 victory more than a decade ago. Daboll finally getting the monkey off their back is on-the-nose symbolism. The future in New York is very bright.

In the end, this Giants season has proven it’s not about the Jimmys and Joes and how they fare with the Xs and Os. It’s about the Brians and Daniels, and it took the next great football coach to do it.