Evidently, we missed the memo about the greatness of former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll.
Now serving as the Titans’ offensive coordinator, Daboll has been the subject of nonstop praise throughout the offseason.
The Daboll redemption tour began the second that new Titans coach Robert Saleh paired Daboll with second-year quarterback Cam Ward.
Having high hopes for the Daboll and Ward partnership is one thing, but the glazing should only go so far. Enter The Athletic’s Joe Rexrode, who certainly expects big things from the Titans’ offensive coordinator-quarterback duo.
“A young quarterback who needs easy answers and precision refinement couldn’t ask for much more than having Brian Daboll as his OC,” Rexrode wrote ($).
The Brian Daboll redemption tour doesn’t even make sense anymore
I’m personally a massive believer in the idea that multiple things can be true.
The idea that young quarterbacks benefit from “precision refinement” under Daboll, though, feels incredibly inaccurate — and that’s not a pun, we promise.
Yes, Jaxson Dart completed 63.7% of his passes as a rookie, and he more than lived up to his first-round billing.
But Dart’s rookie season won’t be remembered for anything more than his constant trips to the blue tent.
If Daboll is such a master of “precision refinement,” then why didn’t Dart opt to slide or throw out of bounds more often?
In fact, Daboll keeping an injured Dart in during a loss to the Chicago Bears last November is arguably what cost him his job.
Dart took a hard hit, returned to the game for two plays, and then was evaluated for a concussion before being ruled out.
Let’s also not forget Daboll and the Giants earning a $200,00 fine for entering the medical tent several weeks earlier. League rules prohibit players or coaches from entering the tent during a concussion evaluation.
You’ll forgive us, then, for not exactly buying Daboll as someone capable of providing “easy answers” for a quarterback who took a league-leading 55 sacks last year.
Enough is enough with the Brian Daboll revisionist history
Great coordinators do not make great head coaches. Excellent position coaches aren’t always successful coordinators.
Daboll deserves credit for his work with Josh Allen, and Dart certainly played well while healthy.
But we collectively cannot rewrite history and turn Daboll into this master offensive guru.
The reality is that trainers evaluated Dart for an injury four times in seven starts under Daboll. We’ll go so far as to say the Giants’ coaching staff, specifically Daboll and ex-offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, repeatedly failed Dart.
And, to be clear, Dart’s aggressive play style didn’t help matters. At the same time, though, he was a rookie quarterback on one of the league’s worst teams.
So, yes, it’s absolutely possible that Ward will take a significant Year 2 jump. Daboll’s track record works in Ward’s favor, at least from a counting stats perspective.
But Ward’s health obviously takes priority, and “precision refinement” won’t matter if the quarterback is on injured reserve.
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