The New York Giants fanbase was largely in a tremendous mood when the organization decided to fire head coach Brian Daboll, as they had about had it with a coach who had won five games in the last one-and-a-half seasons and made his mark on the 2025 campaign by continuously snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Despite the fact the Giants are one of the worst teams in the league once again, New York's offense has looked solid. Even with so many injuries, the emergence of Jaxson Dart has given them a plan to move forward in the future. The defense, on the other hand, has been a problem.
The much-ballyhooed defensive line, outside of Brian Burns putting together arguably the best season of his career, has not lived up to the hype. Shane Bowen's defense as a whole has helped multiple Giants wins slip right through their fingers. As such, Burns feels a bit of guilt over Daboll's departure.
Burns said that he feels bad after Daboll was let go in the middle of his fourth season with the Giants, claiming that he feels the team let his head coach down. To absolve Burns of some blame, the fact that he is challenging for the league lead in sacks proves he did everything he could to help Daboll out.
Brian Burns feels disappointment after Giants fire Brian Daboll
Keeping Bowen was seen as perhaps the biggest mistake the Giants made in this whole ordeal. Despite some top draft picks and highly-paid players on this defense, Bowen has regressed to the point where the Giants have now blown multiple two-score leads in the fourth quarter in the span of a month.
Burns is the last person who should be shouldering any Daboll blame. Top pick Abdul Carter has struggled with converting his pressures into sacks, Kayvon Thibodeaux keeps running extremely hot and cold, and elite defensive Dexter Lawrence is not playing up to his maximum potential.
As this year has shown, New York can't just hope that Dart and a whiz kid offensive coach can paper over some of these foundational cracks. The wrong defensive coordinator hire can sink a regime, much like Bowen did in Daboll's last stand.
As long as Burns is performing at this level and Dart keeps the machine turning on offense, the Giants will be able to attract coaches who might be able to succeed where Daboll failed.