Opinion: Regime change will not fix the Giants

After falling to 2-8 on the season and firing head coach Brian Daboll, the New York Football Giants and their fans have found themselves in territory that has been way too familiar over the last 10 years.

The move comes after the Giants blew a 10-point lead in the 4th quarter against the Chicago Bears on Sunday and the team is 0-4 when leading by 10 or more on the road this season.

Daboll had a 20-40-1 record in his 4-year term in New York and in 2022 won NFL Coach of the Year and won a playoff game in a promising first year as an NFL coach.

General manager Joe Schoen will keep his job and lead the Giants’ coaching search, according to multiple reports and current offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will serve as the team’s interim head coach.

The reality is that no matter how many times the Giants change coaches or bring in a new GM, nothing will change.

The reason why this territory is so familiar dates all the way back to January 5, 2016 when long-time, Super Bowl-winning head coach Tom Coughlin had his farewell press conference, announcing his “resignation” as the Giants coach.

The reason I put “resignation” in quotes was that he did not resign. Coughlin later revealed that the team’s owner, John Mara, forced him to resign (essentially firing him) after a disappointing stretch of 4 seasons in which the team went 28-36 on the heels of a Super Bowl win in 2012.

The organization was never the same after this. The following season, the Giants made the playoffs, but fell to the Packers in the NFC Wild Card round after the infamous boat photo.

The Big Blue never recovered.

Then head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese were fired midseason the following year.

Dave Gettleman replaced Reese, a disastrous move of its own, and Pat Shurmur replaced McAdoo. Gettleman, year after year, made horrible decisions, for example, drafting Daniel Jones 6th overall when he was a projected day 2 pick and trading star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., which was a move that ultimately worked out.

Two years later Shurmur was sent packing, and Gettleman somehow stayed. The Giants settled on Joe Judge, a mind-boggling hire at the time, as he was the special teams coordinator for the New England Patriots.

Judge seemingly rejuvenated the culture at 1925 Giants Drive in his first season in 2020, but an abysmal 4-13 2nd season in 2021 cost him his job. Gettleman ultimately retired after 2021.

Enter Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll. The duo brought the team to a playoff appearance in 2022 after a 9-7-1 regular season. After 2022, the team fell off the rails, going 11-33 to this date, and now Daboll is gone.

Those 4 coaches in the post-Coughlin era all have brutal records. McAdoo went 13-15 in a season-and-a-half, Shurmur went 9-23, Judge went 10-23 and Daboll’s record is displayed above.

Three constants have always remained. Senior vice president of football operations and strategy Kevin Abrams, director of player personnel Tim McDonnell and senior player personnel consultant Chris Mara have survived 3 regime changes all because they are close friends with, or related to, Mara.

McDonnell is the most controversial of the 3. McDonnell is John Mara’s nephew and since he joined the team as a scout in 2013 the team has not won the NFC East, made the playoffs twice and gone 70-125-1.

You may think that a scout cannot possibly cause a team to be terrible for 12 years. If you do, you thought wrong. John Mara has even promoted McDonnell twice. First in 2019 as the assistant director of player personnel and then again in 2021 to his current role.

It cannot be that four coaches and three GMs have failed to put a winning product on the field over the last 12 years because of bad coaching or bad roster construction.

It cannot be that the team has failed to develop talent with multiple coaches, and then that failed talent succeeds elsewhere.

It cannot be that three GMs cannot identify and draft solid talent for 12 straight years.

Point the finger at the three guys who are always surviving regime changes, because John Mara will not put personal and family relationships aside for the good of the franchise.

No matter who the coach is, or who the GM is, Abrams, McDonnell and Chris Mara will always have a say in decision-making in this organization.

The Giants' issues so clearly go beyond coaching and the general manager to the point where regime change will not and will never make a difference.

If John Mara truly cares to fix the Giants, he should start by letting Abrams, McDonnell and his brother Chris go. If he can’t do that, then he should sell the team.

New York will yet again be looking for another coach after another lost season.

Ian Rothenberg is a second-year student majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in the Smeal Business Certificate. To contact him email imr5327@psu.edu