Brian Daboll’s New Plan for Daniel Jones and His Offense

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Whether it’s how impressive newcomer Brian Burns is on the defensive side of the ball, or how much weight Head Coach Brian Daboll has lost during the offseason, there are plenty of storylines coming out of Giants training camp. Perhaps the biggest is how much of a difference there is with New York’s offense this year compared to previous ones.

The most noticeable difference during training camp? “Explosive plays”, specifically ones that are called by Daboll.

It’s no secret that the Giants’ offense last season was pretty stagnant, for lack of a better word. New York’s passing offense was ranked 31st in the NFL, while their rushing offense (even with Saquon Barkley in the backfield) was ranked 16th. Those totals combined earned the team a spot as the 30th ranked offense; which is bottom three in the league.

In order to combat this, New York drafted wide receiver Malik Nabers out of Louisiana State with the sixth pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. After multiple reports said that the team was going to try and trade up for a quarterback, the Giants remained where they were at and chose the best possible offensive weapon. Nabers’ ability to run every route in the route tree is what separates him from most receivers coming out of college, which is why New York’s wide receivers coach, Mike Groh, called Nabers the best receiver in this year’s draft.

With a surefire number one wide receiver now on the roster (something that the Giants haven’t had since Odell Beckham Jr’s departure in 2019), this opens up Brian Daboll’s offense a lot. Everyone knows that Daboll is an “offensive-minded coach”, but he really hasn’t had the luxury of showing it so far throughout his first two seasons coaching the Giants. He was able to showcase his brilliance with the likes of Josh Allen, while working as the Offensive Coordinator for the Buffalo Bills, but the Giants don’t have a Josh Allen on their roster. They have a Daniel Jones.

While that might sound like a knock on Jones, it is the obvious truth; Daniel Jones can’t do some of the stuff that Josh Allen does. In fact, in the six games that Daniel Jones started as quarterback for the Giants, New York was ranked dead last among all 32 teams in total offense. In those six games, the Giants were only able to score five offensive touchdowns, while four of those came in one game against the Arizona Cardinals. Jones’ season ended after he tore his ACL against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 9, where he ended the season with three total touchdowns and seven turnovers.

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While Jones didn’t play up to the standards of his $82 million guaranteed contract last season, it wasn’t all his fault. He was sacked 30 times in his six starts, as New York’s offensive line would go on to allow 85 sacks throughout the entire regular season; which was the second most in NFL history.

Jones was also playing behind a brutally injured offensive line at the beginning of the season (one that was missing three of its starters), and didn’t have Barkley to carry a large part of the offense, as he was also out with injury. Everything went completely wrong with this offense right from the get-go last season.

What also didn’t help the situation was the fact that Daboll and Offensive Coordinator Mike Kafka tried to call more “conservative plays” after Jones got paid; especially when their best offensive player in Barkley went down with injury. In fact, his 5.7 yards per attempt was ranked 51st out of the 59 quarterbacks who started a regular season game last season. While Daboll and the offensive coaches with the Giants limited their quarterback to checkdowns and screens, Jones only got to showcase his arm in one game last year, against the Arizona Cardinals; which just so happens to be the only game that he won last season. The biggest highlight of that game was Jones’ 58-yard pass to Jalin Hyatt, which kicked off the Giants comeback.

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Daboll is learning from his mistakes last year, as he has a new approach to training camp this time around. Explosive plays were mentioned earlier, but the entire offensive scheme is being revamped. This team can no longer rely on Saquon Barkley to carry the bulk of the load on offense, as they are now switching to a more “pass heavy” scheme. Rushing offenses are a thing of the past now that the NFL is completely quarterback driven, so the Giants have to get with the times; which Daboll seems to be working on heavily.

For starters, Daboll is taking over play calling duties from OC Mike Kafka, according to Jordan Raanan of ESPN. That was obviously Daboll’s job in Buffalo, but since becoming the head coach of the Giants, he has had very limited reps with the team in terms of calling plays. While the quarterback he’s working with now is not Josh Allen, there is a still a lot of upside with the Giants passing game; Daboll knows that.

Since the start of training camp, Daboll is testing out Jones’ ability to stand in the pocket and complete difficult passes downfield. This could be hinting at the fact that Kafka was the one calling the conservative plays for Jones, and that Daboll is stepping in to fix this issue.

Regardless of how Jones’ play has panned out under a new coaching system, he is trying to make the throws that his head coach is demanding of him. Those throws mostly include 30-yard+ passes to guys like Nabers and sophomore receiver, Jalin Hyatt. While early reports said that Jones was struggling to throw deep early on in training camp, there have also been a few highlight reel passes on his part as well.

With the amount of money that Jones is making, these throws should come natural to him, but with a long line of various head coaches and offensive coordinators telling him different things, that isn’t the case. There have been a lot of bad throws on Jones’ part, as a video of him overthrowing a screen pass went viral on social media; as did another video of him overthrowing a wide open Wan’Dale Robinson.

The best way to look at this is that Daboll is demanding Jones to change his own style of play. With four receivers in Nabers, Hyatt, Robinson, and Darius Slayton who can all create separation, and get open downfield, Jones has to be willing to look their way. New York has an out on Daniel Jones’ contract after this season, so in order to have even a sliver of job security with the Giants, he is going to have to perform at a high level. That means playing up to the standards of his head coach; the one that is now calling plays for him.

It’s still early into training camp, so there is time for Jones to learn what Daboll is throwing at him, but Week 1 is almost a month away. Will Jones finally florish in the passing game? Better yet, will Daboll finally find “his” franchise quarterback in Jones? Or, will Jones resort back to the level of play that he showed last season? That would mean that he would be getting cut from the team next offseason, and the Giants would be looking for a new quarterback elsewhere.

Those questions are going to answer themselves early on next season; whether it’s good or bad.