New York Giants owner John Mara has warned head coach Brian Daboll to avoid going from 'Bono to bozo' in his second season in charge of the NFC East franchise.
Daboll became an immediate sensation in New York, leading the Giants to an unexpected postseason berth while he was named NFL Coach of the Year in his first season in the leading role. The former Buffalo Bulls offensive coordinator inherited a rebuilding team that had gone five successive seasons with double-digit losses and finished last in the NFC East three times across that period.
Despite lowly expectations, Daboll led the Giants to a 9-7-1 record as they went to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Big Blue went on to upset the Vikings in Minnesota in the Wild Card round before they were eliminated at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles, who represented the NFC in Super Bowl LVII.
As a result, Daboll has become something of a cult figure in New York - and team owner John Mara has noticed the hype surrounding the 47-year-old. In a cheeky recent interview, Mara offered a lighthearted warning to his coach as he enters his second season.
“We kid him. Right now he’s Bono walking around New York City, but as I’ve told him, in this business, it doesn’t take long to go from Bono to Bozo,” Mara told SiriusXM NFL Radio. “So don’t get your head too big right now. But no, he has been great. He likes to go to Rangers games at the Garden, and they put his picture up there and he gets these standing ovations week after week, so it’s pretty cool to see.”
Daboll, a longtime assistant at the NFL and college level, was named the NFL Coach of the Year by both The Associated Press and the Pro Football Writers Association of America following the Giants’ impressive 2022 campaign. However, he is clearly not resting on his laurels as the head coach insisted the Giants have work to do this upcoming season as they look to make ground up on the Eagles, their NFC East rivals.
“What you do one year has no correlation to what you do next year,” Daboll told reporters Tuesday. “What you do one game has no correlation to what you do the next game… In terms of where we're at and things we got to do, we got a long climb ahead of us.”
With star running back Saquon Barkley coming back on the franchise tag and quarterback Daniel Jones set to begin his new four-year deal worth $160million, the Giants moved quickly to acquire a new target on offence in the form of former Pro Bowl tight end Darren Waller. Last season, the Giants did not have anyone catch more than 57 passes, tally more than 724 receiving yards, or score more than four touchdowns on receptions.
Waller arrived via trade from the Las Vegas Raiders and the 30-year-old is considered one of the NFL's finest tight ends. In his last fully healthy season of 2020, he set a Raiders franchise record with 107 receptions and 1,196 receiving yards, while scored a career-high nine touchdowns and was selected to the Pro Bowl.
At his news conference at the NFL Annual Meeting on Tuesday, Daboll suggested Waller's presence might help the Giants offence find more success passing the ball than it did in 2022. He added: “Darren, I think, is a good football player. I'm happy that we traded for him. To get him in our system, to let him see how he processes our calls, to get him out on the field, to read his body language, he's been a very talented player in the league. I'm happy we have him. And I'm looking forward to working with him.
“He's a pretty unique player, I would say. We've just got to get him into the building and start working with him in terms of learning our stuff. But he's a talented player.”
