Inside The Giants Collapse That Got Brian Daboll Fired

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 17, 2025, 7:30 AM

inside the giants collapse that got brian daboll fired

Brian Daboll’s best hope at sticking around as Giants coach was rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart. Dart leaving Sunday’s game with a concussion was the start of their latest collapse, the final straw that got the 50-year-old coach fired Monday in the middle of his fourth season at the helm. After Russell Wilson took over, the Giants were able to get down to the Bears’ 1-yard line but couldn’t punch it in, and Daboll settled for a field goal to go up 20-10 with... The Giants were able to force the Bears into a turnover on downs on the Chicago 43-yard line with 8:41 left, but with Dart gone, the Wilson-led offense had two penalties and ran the... Chicago then went on a nine-play, 91-yard touchdown drive, jump-started by a 20-yard Caleb Williams pass to tight end Colston Loveland on a third-and-10 at the Bears’ 26-yard line. Since starting his tenure 7-2, Daboll went 13-38-1, the second-worst record in the NFL over that span.

Luke Hales / Getty Images New York Giants co-owner John Mara issued a lighthearted warning after coach Brian Daboll achieved unexpected success in his first season. “Right now, he’s Bono walking around New York City,” Mara said during the 2023 offseason. “But I’ve told him — I’ve said: ‘In this business, it doesn’t take long to go from Bono to Bozo. So don’t get your head too big right now.’” Mara has never been more right.

He surely has never wished he were more wrong. The Giants fired Daboll on Monday after they dropped to 2-8 for the third consecutive season following another fourth-quarter collapse in Chicago on Sunday. That was the Giants’ fourth-straight loss and 11th straight defeat on the road. That comes on the heels of last season’s 3-14 record, which included a franchise-record 10-game losing streak. The New York Giants have officially parted ways with head coach Brian Daboll after a 2–8 start to his fourth season, the team announced Monday. Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport first reported the firing and later confirmed in a joint statement from Giants president John Mara and chairman Steve Tisch, who said the organization “has not met its expectations”... Daboll’s departure ends a tenure that began with optimism. After leading New York to a 9–7–1 record and a playoff appearance in 2022, Daboll seemed to have restored energy to a franchise hungry for stability. But the success proved fleeting. Over the next two and a half seasons, the Giants won only 11 games, including a 3–14 campaign in 2024 that featured a 10-game losing streak, the longest in team history. Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bears, in which New York blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead, marked the 11th straight road defeat and sealed Daboll’s fate.

While the offense sputtered under constant staff turnover, the defense faltered as well. New York ranks 27th in points allowed and 29th in yards allowed this season. In their current five-game losing streak, the Giants have been outscored 75–37 in fourth quarters. Star pass rusher Brian Burns leads the league with 11 sacks, but the secondary has been among the NFL’s weakest. At first glance, it might be confusion precisely why the New York Giants treated Sunday’s 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears as a firable offense for head coach Brian Daboll. After all, the Giants are no stranger to fourth-quarter collapses, having blown an even bigger lead earlier this season to Denver.

They’re used to losing games they led on the road — four 10-point leads in road games blown this season already. And the offense struggled to respond to the Bears only after Jaxson Dart exited the game with a concussion. But that confluence of factors, everything from how regularly the Giants made the late-game dreams of their opponents come true to a failure to protect Dart proved to be Daboll’s downfall after posting a... Or as Daboll explained the latest collapse, in what turned out to be his last-ever press conference as head coach of the Giants: “I mean, there were a number of things today. There were all three phases, just didn't get the job done.” It’s hard to argue!

The offense simply stopped moving the ball with Dart out of the game. The defense could not slow down a Bears attack that it had limited to 10 points through three quarters and which isn’t nearly as effective as the offensive units of Dallas or Denver. The common thread, though, is the Giants proved incapable of making key defensive stops at the most critical times once again. The New York Giants will have a new head coach for the fifth time since 2016. New York fired its head coach Nov. 10, after a 2-8 start to the 2025 season.

Offensive coordinator and former assistant head coach Mike Kafka will serve as the Giants' interim head coach for the final eight weeks of the season. Daboll, who won the 2022 NFL Coach of the Year award for leading the Giants to the playoffs in his first season, didn't make it through a fourth season with New York. He was the Giants' first head coach since three-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin to make it through more than two seasons, but he did not get much further. Ultimately, the Giants' 2-8 record was more a reflection of poor coaching from Daboll than the efforts of the players on the field. Here's why the Giants fired Daboll after three and a half seasons: Brian Daboll’s time as Giants head coach officially came to an end on Monday.

The move comes after the team suffered its fourth straight loss on Sunday in a late collapse to the Bears, over whom they held a 10-point lead in the third quarter. According to Connor Hughes of SNY, the Giants made the decision now because the feeling around the organization internally is that the talent is better than the results have shown. Quarterback Jaxson Dart’s injury also sparked the change. NFL insider Josina Anderson also weighed in on the firing in an appearance on the New York Post’s “Blue Rush” podcast. “I think some of the criticisms that I’ve heard, people talk about the management of his emotions,” she said. “The management of how he comports himself when he’s obviously under duress for his job.

... When you look back at last season and you see some of the interactions with players on the sideline or his reaction when a call is not going his way. It does raise legitimate questions about how much he is having his wits about him during those moments, particularly when you see big leads go away.” The New York Giants are firing head coach Brian Daboll after a 2-8 start to his fourth season in New York, the team announced on Monday. Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will be the interim head coach. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport initially reported the news of Daboll's firing.

Daboll amassed a 20-40-1 record over his three and a half seasons with the Giants, a tenure that began with promise with a postseason berth in 2022. Since going 9-7-1 in Daboll's debut campaign, the Giants won just 11 more games over the next two and a half seasons. Their close loss on Sunday to the Chicago Bears in which they blew a late 10-point lead represented the Giants' fourth straight defeat, and the final under Daboll's watch. Founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton, the New York Post is America’s oldest continuously published newspaper – and one of its most provocative, impactful, and beloved news brands. We shine a bright light on the people and institutions that shape our readers’ lives; we break big stories and set the news agenda; and we offer engaging, fun and addictive content to the... Brian Daboll’s best hope at sticking around as Giants coach was rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart.

Dart leaving Sunday’s game with a concussion was the start of their latest collapse, the final straw that got the 50-year-old coach fired Monday in the middle of his fourth season at the helm. After Russell Wilson took over, the Giants were able to get down to the Bears’ 1-yard line but couldn’t punch it in, and Daboll settled for a field goal to go up 20-10 with... Bill Belichick responds to Giants speculation after Brian Daboll firing This is the right move at the right time. Given what transpired on a gray and cold Chicago Sunday, there was no chance Brian Daboll would return in 2026. Once that verdict was made by co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch — the 24-20 loss made that a fait accompli — it made no sense to string this out and delay the inevitable.

There are seven games remaining and no signs that anything would get turned around. Get texts from Paul Schwartz with all the latest Giants news and insights, exclusive to Sports+ subscribers. Monday, late morning, Mara and Tisch had a conversation on the phone and, together, they agreed it was time for a change. They called in their general manager, Joe Schoen, and informed him of their decision — and that offensive coordinator Mike Kafka would be elevated as the interim head coach. Then the co-owners brought Daboll in and told him that his time as the head coach had come to an end.

Inside The Giants Collapse That Got Brian Daboll Fired

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