For any Giants fans thinking Brian Daboll has any sort of bad blood with his former employer, you might want to think again.
It's not an unreasonable thought by any means -- they did fire him midseason, after all. But that's what happens when you're in the middle of a 5-24 stretch, with no end in sight. And another blown double-digit lead in Chicago in Week 10 finally did him in, with general manager Joe Schoen parting ways with his long-time buddy the next morning.
Daboll's offensive brilliance was never truly able to shine through in East Rutherford as it did with Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, but the 50-year-old was clearly able to get through to rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, after many scouts and analysts believed he was more of a project than finished product coming out of college.
Dabs is the reason Dart is on the team in the first place. A draft night video all but confirmed he was pounding the table for the Ole Miss standout, and the two would go on to look like a solid pair for the six weeks they worked together before the struggling head coach was released.
Brian Daboll is quietly hyping up the Giants and Jaxson Dart
He certainly hasn't forgotten his time with his rookie signal-caller, and according to recent reports from The Athletic's Dianna Russini, not only does Daboll not hold a grudge against the G-Men, but he's been talking to the other candidates who are linked to the job, giving them rave reviews of the opportunity -- and more specifically -- Dart.
Related: Colin Cowherd dropped impossible-to-ignore message about Giants’ coaching search
When speaking on the Giants Huddle podcast, the NFL insider had quite the scoop on the Giants' head coaching search, and Daboll's role in particular:
“I’ve actually spoken to some coaches interested in the Giants’ job who’ve had conversations with Daboll, and they’ve gotten rave reviews about this Giants job, specifically about Jaxson. Ownership and Jaxson, again, are things he had shared with them, in I guess, you can call it private conversations, but everyone is collecting information. They want to know what they’re walking into here, because nobody knows unless you do it.”
Just like employees do everywhere else, coaches talk. They give behind-the-scenes details about ownership and the organization -- things that aren't easily seen from the outside.
That Daboll is still willing to hype up ownership and the QB matters... a lot. Those are the two biggest selling points this franchise can realistically pitch to candidates right now, especially with how little winning they’ve done over the past decade and with Schoen still operating as GM.
Say what you will about John Mara’s involvement, or lack thereof, but he’s still widely seen as a reasonable owner. Meanwhile, Dart just wrapped up a promising rookie season and hasn't even scratched the surface of what he can do. Imagine how much better he'd be with a competent coach and a more competitive roster.
John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski figure to be the Giants' top options for now. Let's hope they've gotten a hold of Dabs this past week.