EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants are retaining general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll off a 3-14 season, team president John Mara announced in a statement.
The quick decision comes on the heels of a 20-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, concluding a season that included a franchise-record 10-game losing streak and 11 losses in the last 12 games.
The statement read, in part:
"Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll will continue in their respective roles with the organization. As disappointing as the results of the season have been, [team chairman Steve] Tisch and I remain confident in the process that Joe and Brian have implemented and their vision for our team.
We look forward to the future and the result we all desire."
Daboll said he was officially told of his return Monday morning. He admitted nothing was good enough this past season, the results were "terrible," and the team has a lot of work to do moving forward.
He said he never wavered in his belief that he would remain coach, something he also confidently stated during his bye week press conference, and expressed no regret about his handling of the quarterback position since taking over.
Schoen and Daboll each has two years remaining on his contract. They will be under pressure to produce a better result immediately.
While Mara didn't put a specific timeline on a turnaround, he didn't offer much leeway.
"Better not take too long, because I've just about run out of patience," Mara said.
He later added: "I'm going to have to be in a better mood this time next year."
They're going to have to start with finding a quarterback. The Giants benched and cut starter Daniel Jones during the season and Drew Lock, who took over down the stretch, will be an unrestricted free agent. Tommy DeVito also will be an exclusive rights free agent, although he is expected to return.
The Giants went into 2024 willing to see if Jones could solidify his future as the franchise quarterback. That clearly didn't pan out. The plan was to move on from Jones and find a quarterback in the draft if that was the case.
New York will have the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
"That's obviously the No. 1 issue for us going into this offseason is to find our quarterback of the future, whether that be via the draft or acquire a veteran," Mara said. "It's going to be up to them to decide."
He made clear that Schoen and Daboll were responsible for the decision to sign Jones to a four-year, $160 million deal during the 2023 offseason.
It was hardly their only personnel miscue. The Giants' roster was a significant contributing factor to the 3-14 season. In fact, Mara wasn't sure the roster this season was much better than when Schoen and Daboll took over three years ago based on the results.
"I'm not sure I am all that confident that [the roster is] that much better," Mara said.
Mara met with Schoen and Daboll for several hours on Friday afternoon. They explained this disappointing season and outlined their plans for the future. It apparently was enough to win over ownership and buy them at least one more season.
Mara then talked with Tisch and they decided keeping Schoen and Daboll was the "best course of action." While clearly the results on the field weren't good enough, Mara pointed out that Daboll was the Coach of the Year during his first season in 2022. He believes that is still in there.
Mara also thought Schoen had an "outstanding" draft, signed good free agents and had put together a strong staff. Mara was impressed with the information Schoen used in making personnel decisions.
Still, there were questions about Schoen's and Daboll's futures with the Giants coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history (.176 win percentage). They went 6-11 the previous year, and Daboll had to overhaul his staff after butting heads with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and several other assistants. Mara again mentioned the defense being a problem during his session with reporters.
The regime's lone success came in its first season, when the Giants reached the playoffs and won a postseason game. But they have gone 12-31-1 since starting 7-2 in that first season. That has bought them some time.
The Giants' past may have been their savior. Each of the previous three Giants coaches were fired before their third season.
"Again, when you make these changes, and God knows we've made them in the past and been impatient in the past, when you do that you feel like you take one step forward, two steps back," Mara said. "I just didn't want to fall into that cycle again. I wanted to give people the chance to build this thing the right way and get us where we need to be."
It raised questions about whether they deserved to return.
"I think they're the right two guys to lead us going forward," Mara said. "Believe me that is not going to be the most popular decision in Giants land, but we believe it's the right decision for us going forward."