Daboll, 47, could become the first Giants coach to be selected Coach of the Year since Jim Fassel in 1997. Like Fassel, Daboll took over a team that was last in the NFC East the previous year and led it to the playoffs in his debut season.
The Giants finished 9-7-1 and qualified for the playoffs as a wild card team. It was the Giants’ first winning season and first postseason berth since 2016. The Giants won just four games in 2021, the year prior to Daboll’s arrival, and the five-game improvement is their largest in one season since they jumped from six victories in 2015 to 11 in 2016.
The Daboll difference was evident early in the season. The Giants had not won their season opener since 2016 and beginning that season through 2021 never won more than two of their first five games, In 2020 and 2021, they started 0-5 and then 0-3. But in their first game under Daboll, the Giants overcame a 13-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Titans in Tennessee, 21-20, on a touchdown and Barkley’s two-point conversion reception with 1:06 remaining.
Daboll became the first Giants coach to win his debut with the team since Ben McAdoo in 2016. He was the first Giants coach to win five of his first six games since Dan Reeves in 1993, and his 6-1 start was the best for a coach in his first Giants season since LeRoy Andrews was 6-0-1 in 1929.
In the first five weeks of the season, the Giants defeated Tennessee and Green Bay, the 2021 No. 1 playoff seeds in their respective conferences.
Daboll is the fifth coach in Giants history to lead the team to the playoffs in his debut season, joining Allie Sherman (1961), Reeves (1993), Fassel (1997) and McAdoo (2016). Rookie coach Earl Potteiger led the Giants to the 1927 NFL championship in the era before playoffs.
Daboll was one of three first-year head coaches to lead his team to the postseason in 2022, joining Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell and Miami’s Mike McDaniel. Daboll was the only one of the three to advance to the divisional round, and he did so with a Giants victory against O’Connell’s Vikings.
Daboll was the first Giants coach to win his postseason debut since Reeves in 1993. He joined Jim Lee Howell, Ray Perkins, Bill Parcells and Reeves as Giants coaches who were victorious in their first playoff games.
The Giants’ season ended Saturday with a loss to NFC East rival Philadelphia in a divisional playoff game.
The other finalists for the Coach of the Year award are Buffalo’s Sean McDermott, Jacksonville’s Doug Pederson, San…
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