Brian Daboll ended his first regular season as an NFL head coach the way he started it — making the correct call and hitting all the right notes.
As Giants fans no doubt recall, Daboll’s decision to go for the two-point conversion and the victory in Nashville back in Week 1 not only resulted in a 21-20 victory over the Titans but it also set an aggressive tone that carried through the next several months. Daboll’s handling of the Week 18 finale was deft and smart and again showed why he should get heavy consideration for the NFL Coach of the Year award.
Opting to rest virtually all his starting players was certainly not a novel approach. The Giants could not move up or down from the No. 6 seed in the NFC and Daboll handled the situation accordingly, making sure his key guys stayed healthy for Sunday’s playoff game against the Vikings in Minneapolis. There was the risk of getting run off the field by the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field with the NFC East rival playing their starters in order to lock down the No. 1 seed, which they did with a 22-16 victory. That a bunch of guys who rarely get on the field for extended playing time stayed competitive with an NFC heavyweight is a reflection on the mindset Daboll takes into the facility every day. The Giants forced the Eagles to play their starters the entire game — not something their head coach, Nick Sirianni, wanted to do.
Daboll made good on his vow to do whatever possible to win the game — with the players he put out there. He tried to spark a lagging offense directed by Davis Webb, the third-string quarterback, calling for a fake field goal and an onside kick. Neither worked. That did not really matter. What mattered was Daboll showed the backups and reserves that he was not mailing in this game, that he was trying to win it.
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Daboll also scored big with his decision to start Webb ahead of backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Nothing against Taylor, of course. Daboll during the season elevated Webb twice off the practice squad to make him active but not play in two games. Why? The elevation gave Webb a hefty boost in pay for those weeks with a direct deposit for the equivalent of a game check rather than the much lower practice-squad earnings. That resonates with players.
Webb and Daboll spent the past three seasons together with the Bills, Webb on the practice squad and Daboll as the offensive coordinator. There is mutual respect there. It is no secret Webb is going to go into coaching, most likely after this season. Heck, Webb — the son of a coach — spoke about his passion for coaching back in 2017, when the Giants selected him in the third round of the NFL Draft. There is every reason to believe he will climb the ladder and become a quality quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator and then, who knows?
Heading into this season, Webb’s playing ledger consisted of one game in 2021, four snaps, no pass attempts, no nothing for the Bills. It would have been a shame if that is how he left behind his playing career. Daboll not only gave him a start, surrounded by backups, but turned Webb loose to try to make plays to win the game. That did not happen, but Webb now has a touchdown run and touchdown pass on his résumé. His teammates were thrilled about this and that goes back to Daboll’s awareness for what it takes to lead an entire locker room.
More that came out of the Giants regular-season finale:
— Ben Bredeson played all 63 snaps on offense, splitting time between left guard and center. Nick Gates, the starting left guard, played the first 37 snaps, starting at center before taking a seat. This seems to be the pecking order at left guard. It is a rare shared position, and that Gates was rested in the second half and Bredeson went the entire way is the way the coaching staff views this combination. Both players are valuable and get time with the starting offense, but Gates gets first crack.
— What the Giants accomplished, getting into the postseason, is quite rare, considering how they got there. They were 1-4-1 in the NFC East, the sort of record usually owned by losing teams. Winning inside the division is a high priority for every head coach and this is one area where Daboll did not achieve the goal. The Giants are the first team to qualify for the playoffs with no more than one division victory since the 1989 Steelers. The Steelers finished 9-7 that season to earn a wild-card berth despite going 1-5 in the AFC Central.
— The defense was on the field for 73 snaps and Jarrad Davis played 70 of them, registering 10 tackles, half a sack, one tackle for loss and one quarterback hit in his Giants debut. Davis showed when he gets his hand on a ball carrier the ball carrier usually goes down. Did Davis do enough to warrant snaps on defense against the Vikings in Sunday’s playoff game? Davis, 28, was a first-round pick of the Lions in the 2017 NFL Draft and clearly, there is something there. And the Giants’ inside linebacker spot has been a revolving door for much of the season.
— Here is a strange one: The Giants allowed two sacks against the Eagles and Webb, the only quarterback the Giants used in the game, was not sacked once. How’s that? Well, punter Jamie Gillan was sacked on a fake field-goal attempt — Gillan is the holder and the pass he wanted to throw never materialized and he was sacked by cornerback Zech McPhearson for an 11-yard loss on the final play of the first quarter. In the third quarter, the plan was for tight end Lawrence Cager to throw an option pass but he was sacked by linebacker Kyzir White. Not surprisingly, Cager is the first tight end in Giants history to ever be dropped for a sack, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Cager came into the game with seven career receptions and he beat that in one game, with eight receptions for 69 yards. He does look natural as a pass-catcher and is a player who perhaps can be developed for next season.
— Kenny Golladay played all 63 snaps on offense, which is a reflection of where he stands on the depth chart. Daboll did not want to use any of his top three wide receivers and so Isaiah Hodgins and Richie James did not play at all. Darius Slayton was on the field for three snaps when seldom-used Marcus Johnson (60 snaps) needed a break. The Giants went against their nature, using only two receivers on the field the entire game. Golladay started for the first time since the Nov. 20 loss to the Lions. The 25-yard touchdown reception late in the fourth quarter was his first scoring catch in 26 games for the Giants and his first touchdown grab since Oct. 4, 2020, when he was playing for the Lions.
