Last year, after the New York Giants fired head coach Joe Judge, they hired Brian Daboll to succeed him.
Daboll had never been an NFL head coach before, and the Giants opted for him on the sidelines rather than hiring someone with some solid head coaching experience.
Not many outside of the Tri-State Area expected the Giants to do well this season, but they jumped out to a 6-1 start and finished 9-7-1 while making the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
As a result, Daboll was named Coach of the Year, and many people congratulated him in a video montage that was put together for him.
In his debut season with the @Giants, 2022 Coach of the Year Brian Daboll led the team to the Divisional Round! 😤 pic.twitter.com/0uyV6tm2Z8
—NFL (@NFL) February 22, 2023
By the time they reached the postseason, New York was being tabbed as a squad that was prone to pulling off an upset of a higher-seeded team.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what they did, knocking off the Minnesota Vikings, who had won 13 games, in the Wild Card round.
One of the biggest factors in the Giants’ success was the re-emergence of running back Saquon Barkley, who shrugged off some recent injuries to post 1,312 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns en route to his first Pro Bowl nod since his rookie year.
Quarterback Daniel Jones also blossomed, and although he isn’t the greatest threat throwing football, he did have 708 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground, which helped the Giants finish fourth in rushing yards and touchdowns.
They will have some difficult decisions to make this offseason, as both Barkley and Jones will be free agents.
There is a feeling the team is prioritizing Jones, and if it loses Barkley, another playoff appearance next year could be out of the question.
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