Brian Daboll, Giants about to lose first assistant in 2023 for Syracuse OC job
Over the past week, there's been growing buzz that NY Giants head coach Brian Daboll could be getting ready to part ways several assistants soon, including Wink Martindale and Mike Kafka. However, it looks like one guy on his staff already has one foot out the door.
According to Matt Zenitz of 247Sports, Giants running backs coach Jeff Nixon is expected to join the Syracuse staff as the new offensive coordinator for the Orange. This was Nixon's first season in East Rutherford with New York and it's going to be his last:
Giants expected to lose RBs coach Jeff Nixon to the college ranks
Nixon joined the Giants last offseason and he quickly formed a strong bond with Pro Bowler Saquon Barkley. Barkley was also quite complimentary of the NY assistant from the moment he made his way to town. Now, though, Daboll will be on the hunt for his replacement.
This is the first of many moves that Coach Dabes will need to make in the coming months. Recently, Giants beat reporter Ryan Dunleavy said that he thinks Daboll will replace all three of his coordinators this offseason: Kafka, Martindale and Thomas McGaughey. This would be eye-opening if Daboll indeed makes that decision.
McGaughey has been a major disappointment as special teams coordinator, with people calling for him to be canned for quite some time. Kafka has been a let down as OC, with the Big Blue offense looking quite vanilla even before Daniel Jones went down with his torn ACL.
Martindale would be the biggest surprise, especially with the Giants defense looking so strong in recent weeks. However, several reports have surfaced stating that Daboll and Wink have a fractured relationship. Is that relationship beyond repair? That could be the case. It's going to be an offseason of massive changes for Daboll and we already know he'll be on the hunt for a new running backs coach with Nixon on his way to Syracuse.