Brian Daboll has run 12 seasons worth of NFL offenses for five different teams in his coaching career.
In the three full seasons he coached Buffalo Bills star quarterback Josh Allen as a starter, Daboll’s offenses on average ranked ninth in the league in points per game and 11th in yards.
In the other nine seasons without Allen, Daboll’s offenses ranked 26th in points per game on average and 25th in yards — for the Cleveland Browns, the Miami Dolphins, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills and the Giants.
Daboll’s hiring as the Giants‘ head coach in 2022 made sense as a package Buffalo deal with Bills assistant GM Joe Schoen getting the job and making the hire.
Daboll and Allen were coming off back-to-back seasons in 2020 and 2021 when the Bills’ offense ranked second and third in points per game those two seasons, and fourth and fifth in offensive yards, respectively.
The hot offensive coordinators in the NFL always get jobs. Owners want points. Points entertain the fans, and points win.
Monday’s news that new Titans head coach Robert Saleh is expected to tab Daboll as Tennessee’s new offensive coordinator, however, was jarring based on Daboll’s track record — especially his disappointing and toxic run in New York.
Daboll won NFL coach of the year in 2022 when his Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley-led offense, with Mike Kafka calling plays, finished 16th in points per game and 19th in yards.
But when Daboll yanked playcalling away from Kafka during the 2023 season and took over full-time for all of 2024, the Giants’ offense plummeted.
They ranked 30th and 31st in points per game, respectively, in 2023 and 2024 and 29th and 30th in yards per game. Jones eventually was benched, requested his release and went to Indianapolis via Minnesota to revive his career under Shane Steichen.
Daboll then had to give playcalling back to Kafka in 2025, and the Giants’ offense improved to average: 16th in points per game and 13th in yards. But they failed to make key plays at key times on both sides of the ball, the team couldn’t close out games and Daboll got fired midseason.
The coach at least gave the Giants Jaxson Dart, a dynamic 2025 first-round pick that the franchise is putting its full support behind entering 2026.
Still, Dart’s production came at a price during his rookie year: A heavy amount of responsibility on the quarterback, injuries, a frustrating and growing discourse — including leaks from inside the Giants’ building — about Dart’s reckless running style.
And lingering questions about how the quarterback can handle playing mostly from the pocket.
Now Daboll inherits Cam Ward, the Titans No. 1 overall pick that Schoen tried to trade up for last April before pivoting to a plan of selecting Abdul Carter at No. 3 overall and then trading back into the first round at No. 25.
The expectation apparently will be that Daboll will give Ward the schematic and development edge that former Titans head coach Brian Callahan could not. But Ward has a long way to go.
He completed 59.8% of his passes as a rookie. And when the season started spiraling, he spoke his mind.
Ward famously said of the Titans this past fall: “We a–. We’ve dropped a quarter of our f—ing games. So we have to lock in.”
How will that fiery competitive spirit mesh with Daboll, who threw a tablet on the ground in front of Jones early in his Giants tenure?
That will be interesting to see. Especially when the Titans come to MetLife Stadium to play John Harbaugh’s Giants.
Get your popcorn ready.
