One ex-Giant believes Brian Daboll took the fall for Joe Schoen’s mistakes.
Former Big Blue offensive lineman Jon Feliciano railed against the Giants firing Daboll on Monday, citing all the talent that Schoen, who is still employed as general manager, has let exit the building.
“I think it’s f–ked up, I think Dabs was the right guy for the job,” Feliciano said on his “Not Our Fault” podcast Monday after the Giants’ massive shakeup. “It’s kind of hard to win games when your best players get traded or get away for nothing. You go down the list: Myself, (Julian Love), (Xavier) McKinney, (Leonard Williams), Saquon (Barkley), the list goes on and on.”
Feliciano and Daboll formed a strong bond during their four years together, spanning their stints with the Bills (2019-21) and the Giants (2022), enough so that Feliciano called Daboll “my boy” during Monday’s show.
He saw firsthand how Daboll operated as a head coach during that 2022 season, when the then-first-year leader guided the Giants to their only playoff win since triumphing in the 2012 Super Bowl.
The general consensus is that Giants team overachieved that year and then tried to speed up the rebuild process with some decisions that backfired, such as Daniel Jones’ disastrous contract.
There’s a fair debate to be had on whether Daboll’s coaching, Schoen’s roster construction or a mix of the two factored into the Giants’ putrid 11-33 record over the past two-plus seasons, but Feliciano said “no shot” when asked whether Daboll deserved to be dismissed.
“I understand the firing. You keep losing close games, but at the same time, it’s a, ‘You fire that coach outside, but when you’re in the building you know what he means to the players,” Feliciano said. “You know the situation. Your best receiver? Out. Your best running back? Out. Your defense is not playing well, I think the back-end of their defense is f–king terrible, and that also goes with Joe Schoen.
“We let J-Love walk out that building for nothing, you let X walk out the building for nothing and those two guys are on winning teams, like X led the league last year in picks. J-Love has been playing great over there in Seattle with Leo as well, a guy who was one of the heartbeats of the team, best friends with (Dexter Lawrence), that plays a role into it. And then you also force Daboll to play s–tty f–king Russell Wilson the first whatever games of the year and then you finally let him, the guy he banged on the table for to get J-Dart, and he’s playing well.”
Feliciano, who last played in 2023 with the 49ers, explained that he’s friends with Schoen and doesn’t have any bad beef with him, even after the executive low-balled him following the 2022 season.
After starting 15 games for the Giants, he received an offer worth a little more than the veteran’s minimum.
Feliciano left for the 49ers’ $3 million offer to be a backup.
He believes Schoen is on borrowed time.
“Schoen’s gonna get fired by the end of the season. I think it’s easier to fire a coach during midseason. All these guys are my friends. Joe Schoen’s my friend. We definitely had some rough patches…,” Feliciano said while explaining his free agency. “I didn’t want to leave New York at all, I wanted to stay with Dabs and (former offensive line coach) Bobby (Johnson) and help them lead that team, but obviously it worked out for me, going somewhere else, making more money and making it to the Super Bowl.”
While Feliciano believes Daboll got a raw deal, he said that the coach did himself no favors with how he handled the quarterbacks coach situation.
The Giants had Davis Webb on their roster in 2022, and the Broncos then hired him in 2023 to serve as their quarterbacks coach.
Feliciano agreed with his co-host’s notion that the Giants’ current quarterbacks coach, Shea Tierney, is not ready for this current responsibility, and the Giants should have done what they could to retain Webb.
“I believe this is part of the reason why Dabs got fired, and this is something he could have controlled — I think he chose his loyalty to … the quarterbacks coach (Shea Tierney). He’s a great guy, I’ve been with him,” Feliciano said. “I think Davis Webb had a lot to do with Daniel Jones’ success my year there with him, and you see what Davis has gone on to do with …. Every room Davis Webb has been in …. I think that’s a move that could be have been made to help out.
“I just hate to see it. I think Daboll and Jaxson Dart could have been a great combination.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
