Sunday is Mike Kafka‘s first game as the Giants‘ interim head coach with Brian Daboll fired.
It is also Jameis Winston‘s first game as the Giants’ starting quarterback with Jaxson Dart concussed and Russell Wilson demoted.
But all seven of the Giants‘ remaining games this season, including Sunday’s visit from the Green Bay Packers to MetLife Stadium, are not about Kafka or Winston.
They are about Joe Schoen, the third-year GM who so far has survived accountability for engineering one of the worst stretches of franchise history.
Ten straight losses in 2024. Eleven consecutive road losses and counting after Sunday’s collapse in Chicago.
Both franchise records. Both belong as much to Schoen as they do to Daboll, if not more.
To the best of the Daily News’ understanding, Schoen is not definitely safe, but his fate will not be decided until after the regular season is complete.
He is leading the early stages of the Giants’ coaching search, and he has some powerful friends in high places of the organization. So there is a chance he unthinkably survives into 2026.
There is not blind and clearly unanimous confidence in Schoen, though, either.
There is a reason co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch took the unprecedented step to fire a head coach with just under half of a regular season remaining:
They are fed up.
Now, is it true that Daboll’s inability to manage games might have cost this team three to five wins over the course of the past two to three years?
Maybe. He was a bad head coach.
But Schoen does not get a pass from any of those losses or from the team’s 20-40-1 (.336) record on his watch because he hired Daboll and preached constantly about their collaborative process.
He let Saquon Barkley walk to win the Offensive Player of the Year award and the Super Bowl with the rival Philadelphia Eagles. He let Xavier McKinney, who will lead the Packers defense onto the field Sunday, leave to become a first team All-Pro with Green Bay.
He blamed Daniel Jones for the team’s losses and signed Russell Wilson, believing that would reveal the rest of his offensive personnel to be more than sufficient.
And much like a baseball GM, Schoen has been intimately involved in gameday personnel decisions. This was a group effort, or so Schoen always has said.
He doesn’t get to parse blame now.
His roster is not deep. His drafts have been so bad that he’s had to scramble in free agency to try to compensate.
His salary cap looks like a team that should be picking No. 28 in next year’s NFL Draft; they’re scheduled to select No. 4 overall if the order stands.
And Daboll is not the only reason this team doesn’t finish games. Another major reason is that Schoen does not know what leadership looks like.
He robbed this locker room of most of its resolve, leadership, character and chemistry by trading Leonard Williams and waving goodbye to Julian Love on top of the Barkley and McKinney departures.
The underappreciation of players like Jon Feliciano, Ben Bredeson, Nick Gates and Isaiah Hodgins — who was finally re-signed this week — zapped the team of its fabric, as well.
The result is that this team, led by a current passenger in Dexter Lawrence on Andre Patterson’s consistently disappointing defensive line, drops its shoulders every second half when these games get tough.
NFL teams do sometimes spike up, rally and win in their first game after their head coach gets fired. So it’s possible the Giants (2-8) will find a surge of energy on Sunday, especially with the electric Winston at quarterback.
That will be an enormous challenge, however, because their roster is decimated by injuries. Green Bay back Josh Jacobs promises to run all over the Giants’ poor run defense.
And Packers pass rushers Micah Parsons and Rashan Gary are going to be a major problem all afternoon especially when lined up across from Giants right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, who is playing with a pec injury.
Schoen’s only hope to make a case for himself is if his lowly team flips the script immediately, particularly in these final three games before the Giants’ late bye.
Anything can happen in the Giants’ final two games of the regular season against the Raiders and Cowboys in Weeks 17 and 18, when teams are pulling starters, resting for the playoffs or packing it up early.
But if the Giants lose to the Packers, Detroit Lions and New England Patriots these next three weeks — if they fold to 2-11 at the bye, with only the Commanders, Vikings, Raiders and Cowboys to go — Giants ownership won’t even have much to think about on Jan. 5.
Dart’s health is a huge factor here, too.
Having him in the lineup makes their offense more dynamic and competitive. But his long-term health also is critical, and the priority. They need the arrow to continue pointing up on the rookie quarterback.
Schoen does get credit for trading up to draft Dart, so he has that feather in his cap. But everyone knows the truth about how that happened, too:
While Schoen liked Dart pre-draft, Daboll was the one who got involved and steered the Giants’ focus away from Shedeur Sanders to Dart. And the coach was the one who made the call to start Dart in Week 4.
That’s why it’s dangerous to parse blame here. The real story doesn’t look good for anyone — especially Schoen.
