After a 2-8 start to the 2025 season, the New York Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll on Monday and appointed offensive coordinator Mike Kafka as the team’s interim head coach. Kafka becomes the franchise’s sixth head coach since 2016, while Joe Schoen begins the search for Daboll’s successor.
The news doesn’t really come as a surprise to anyone after the G-Men dropped four straight games, including a Week 7 matchup in Denver where the defense allowed 33 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to the Broncos. Most recently, Big Blue blew a 10-point lead to the Chicago Bears, and that was the icing on the cake for John Mara.
After the news broke, former Giants running back turned radio host Tiki Barber shared his reaction on WFAN’s Evan and Tiki, telling Big Blue fans exactly what went wrong with Daboll at the helm over the last four years:
Tiki says Brian Daboll's culture of accountability faded after his first season with the Giants: pic.twitter.com/9x1oghgQkH
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) November 10, 2025
Tiki Barber breaks down what caused Daboll’s downfall as Giants HC
Barber stated that the most significant issue is that Daboll created a culture in his first season with the team in which you had to earn his trust to get opportunities and playing time, but over time, that slipped. Tiki added that it felt like, even when the effort or desire wasn’t there, players still had the chance to play, which led the team to get progressively worse each season.
In 2022, Daboll’s first season as head coach of the G-Men, the team finished 9-7-1 and made the playoffs, defeating the Minnesota Vikings in the first round before losing in the Divisional round to the Philadelphia Eagles. Still, the season was a massive step in the right direction for the Giants, who had been so bad for several years. Daboll was even named AP NFL Coach of the Year.
Tiki even admitted that the Giants’ dropoff since that 2022 season is “not all Daboll’s fault” and states that the talent sucks on this team after you get past the starters, and there’s inconsistency throughout.
Barber continued to defend Daboll, adding, “I hate this for Daboll because I liked him, I had a really good relationship with him, and I wanted to believe that he was the right coach for this team.”
Now, Schoen and Mara will look to find the next leader of this franchise, who can pick up where Daboll left off and continue to develop rookie quarterback phenom Jaxson Dart into the star we all know he can become.