New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll talks to reporters before mandatory minicamp at the Giants training center in East Rutherford on Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
Syndication: The Record
(East Rutherford, NJ) – As the New York Giants prepare to travel to Las Vegas for a weekend date with the Raiders, change is afoot.
Big Blue will have Daniel Jones back at QB, after he was forced to miss several games with a neck injury. And, on the opposing sideline, a new coaching staff will be at work. That’s because Raiders’ owner Mark Davis just fired head coach Josh McDaniels, as well as team GM Dave Ziegler.
Daboll, who considers McDaniels a close friend, said it’s always the personal side you think of first: “… You think first and foremost of your friend. You never want to see that happen to anybody. They work extremely hard, everybody does. You have relationships. Your thought doesn’t really go to the coaching part of it, it goes more to the personal part of it a friend. His kids, his wife. It’s an unfortunate part of the business… (We’ll) do our normal preparation and try to get ready to play our best game.”
It also means that a face familiar to Giants fans will be wearing the headset for Las Vegas, as former New York linebacker and Super Bowl champion Antonio Pierce has been named the Raiders’ interim head coach.
Las Vegas has also announced that veteran QB Jimmy Garoppolo will be benched, with rookie Aiden O’Connell taking over. Daboll isn’t overly concerned about facing an unknown commodity in O’Connel: “There’s enough tape on him. I’ve been in that situation. I’m sure there going to add their own wrinkles, but they had a late Monday night game. In three or four days you’ve got to get ready to play a game.”
And less than 24-hours removed from the Giants’ decision to trade defensive tackle Leonard Williams to the Seattle Seahawks, Daboll provided some details surrounding the club’s rationale. The coach says Giants’ GM Joe Schoen was not the aggressor in dealing Williams. “Seattle called Joe [Schoen]. Joe told me about it. Joe had a private meeting with Leo. T
hose guys talked about it, good conversation, and decided that that was what we were going to do, kind of on both ends. Lot of respect for Leo. Certainly we’ll miss him, but have confidence in the guys, A’Shawn [Robinson] and Nacho [Rakeem Nunez-Roches] and those guys that we have that are playing his spot.”
Williams, a popular player who also filled a valuable role as a veteran on a young squad, will be missed. Daboll says you just have to be upfront with the team: “You tell ‘em how it went down. Joe wasn’t actively shopping anyone. Obviously he fields calls as the general manager. We have confidence in the guys that we have, and let ‘em go out there and have a good week.”
The Giants notably did not part ways with star running back Saquon Barkley, or veteran corner Adoree Jackson.
Meanwhile, the Giants are also hopeful that getting healthy can help turn around their fortunes at 2-6 on the season. Following a three-week absence, QB Daniel Jones will be back. Daboll said Jones is “good to go. Normal practice. He’s been out here throwing.
He’ll have his full workload this week. Once he’s cleared he’s cleared and ready to go.”
