Brian Daboll’s first foray into coaching quarterbacks in the NFL came with the Jets in 2007. He worked with Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens in Eric Mangini’s second season in New York, and then with Brett Favre in 2008.
Now, 14 years and several quarterbacks later, Daboll will try to turn Giants quarterback Daniel Jones around. Jones hasn’t enjoyed a good three-year start to his NFL career, but Daboll has done this before. He was lauded – and likely hired – for his work with Bills quarterback Josh Allen. In just four seasons, Daboll turned Allen into one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Allen’s completion percentage, passing yards and passing touchdowns all improved dramatically from 2018-2020.
The Giants hope Daboll can do the same with Jones, this time as a head coach instead of just as an offensive coordinator. While Jones improved his completion percentage and dropped his interception percentage in 2021, his yards per game and yards per completion remained stagnant. Some of that is on Jones, but a lot can be pinned on Big Blue’s lacking offensive line, weapons and scheme.
It’s hard to pin down exactly what Daboll and his staff need to do to turn Jones into a better quarterback. Allen had a lot of raw potential coming into the NFL, but decision-making and turnovers were major issues. But Daboll made minor tweaks to boost Allen’s efficiency without sacrificing passing attempts or yards. It helped that the Bills aggressively built up their roster to cater to Allen.
Jones and Allen aren’t the same players, so Daboll’s latest fixer-upper is not an apples-to-apples comparison. It can’t be assumed that Daboll can do the same thing with the Giants that he did with the Bills.
But, Allen wasn’t the only quarterback Daboll worked with who turned into a solid player.
Before Daboll joined the Bills, he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2017. There he coached Jalen Hurts for most of the season and then Tua Tagovailoa in the Crimson Tide’s title win over Georgia. Hurts transferred and excelled at Oklahoma, was a second-round pick by the Eagles in 2020 and helped Philadelphia to the playoffs in 2021. Tagovailoa was the Dolphins’ first-round pick in 2020 and has flashed at times as their starter.
Jones has played poorly at times in his career, but he looked solid in the first four games of the 2021 season when he completed 66.67 percent of his passes and averaged 296 yards per game. Jones’ production plummeted the rest of the season and a neck injury ended his season after Week 12.
That, a bad offense and a worse offensive line tanked his ability to play adequate football. Team president John Mara even said the Giants did “everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here” because of all the new coaches and coordinators the team has had.
Daboll isn’t a wizard, but if he can build Jones into a quality player, then he might just be a QB whisperer. He has the track record so far, and Jones isn’t too-far-gone – yet.
