The 2022 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.
Daboll was considered the favorite to win the award because he took a team few outside the Giants’ headquarters expected to succeed and led it to the playoffs. What were his expectations?
“Just to come in, work hard and try to get better every day,” he said. “Each year is a new year. Next year will be a new year. I’m thankful that I got to be part of this team, along with everyone else in our building. And it was a special year. You wish you were continuing to play, but expectation-wise, just come in and work hard. We’re going to have to redo it starting now and build a new team for the 2023 season.”
The Giants defeated the Vikings in Minnesota in an NFC Wild Card Game, 31-24, for their first postseason victory since Super Bowl XLVI 11 years ago.
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, after Daboll’s gutsy decision, Saquon 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 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 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…
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