Brian Daboll’s return to his play-calling roots the right Giants move
NY Post
How about this: The Giants will be getting a more seasoned and accomplished offensive play-caller — and also, as an added and welcome by-product, perhaps a calmer head coach — now that it appears Brian Daboll will be reaching back into his past to reclaim what got him to this exalted position in the first place.
It is not even a secret anymore that Daboll will be the new play-caller on offense this season, a responsibility handled in 2022 and most of 2023 by offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. The Giants were 16th in the league in scoring in 2022 and plummeted to 30th in 2023, and to say this regression is all on Kafka is akin to saying your basement flooded because someone dropped an ice cube on the floor.
This spring, it has been Daboll’s voice in the radio transmitters in the helmets of the quarterbacks. This is not breaking in a newbie who has never done it before.
“I feel like that’s his comfortable spot,’’ second-year running back Eric Gray told The Post on Wednesday after the Giants wrapped up their second and final practice of their mandatory minicamp. “That’s what he’s used to doing, he’s been an OC. He knows his stuff. I feel like he goes home and just looks at plays all day. It’s really good.’’
When he was hired by the Giants, Daboll became a head coach for the first time, at any level, and he decided calling the plays — which he did, to great acclaim, the previous four seasons with the Bills — was going to be too much to handle and not the best way for him to oversee the entire operation.
That was the right call then. This is the right call now.
It feels right that on the day we celebrate Aaron Judge joining an elite pantheon of athlete — the multi-time winner of the Most Valuable Player award — that we take a walk back to the beginning, when Judge was little more than a 6-foot-7, 280-pound curiosity who mostly specialized in striking out.
The NFL has warned its players to take precautions against a “transnational crime ring” that is suspected of orchestrating a number of break-ins of athletes’ homes including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Joel Embiid isn’t pleased with details of the 76ers’ team meeting after Monday’s loss being leaked, telling reporters after Wednesday’s road loss to the Grizzlies, “whoever leaked that is a real piece of s–t.”
PHOENIX — Jalen Brunson didn’t want to comment on the NBA looking into his father’s promotion and contract as a potential salary-cap circumvention, but the point guard certainly had a message to anybody questioning Rick Brunson’s coaching credentials.
PHOENIX — Wednesday brought some cautiously optimistic updates for the Knicks frontcourt.
The Greatest Escape in franchise history was perpetrated by Glen Sather, when the general manager extricated himself and the Rangers from the final five years of Scott Gomez’s contract by moving the $7,357,143-per-year center to Montreal on June 30, 2009 after two years in New York.
The Yankees publicly are on the same page: Hal Steinbrenner, like Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone before him, said that issues with the club’s fundamentals did not hover over the team all season.
The first day of the rest of Daniel Jones’ dwindling time with the Giants arrived Wednesday, with Jones in the building, in the meetings, on the practice field (although not doing very much) and not at all part of the game plan for the next game, relegated to a non-participant role for the remainder of the season.
There will be a little extra magic for Knicks-Spurs on Christmas Day.
The quickest way for the Giants to climb out of quarterback hell is also the quickest way to extend their stay there for at least three more years.