Giants John Mara Explains Why Ownership is Sticking with Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen

The Giants co-owner said he still believes in the two men's ability to turn the franchise around even though he couldn't say the roster was better this year.

Dec 8, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants co-owner John Mara watches warmups before a game against the New Orleans Saints at MetLife Stadium. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

New York Giants co-owner John Mara told reporters that he didn’t need the planes flying over MetLife Stadium to open his eyes as to how bad the product on the field was this past season.

Yet despite the misery that a 3-14 season brought to Mara, fellow co-owner Steve Tisch, and the rest of the franchise, the Giants are running it back with general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll for a fourth year.

Even though he admitted that he couldn’t say the roster this year was better.

“I'm not sure I am all that confident that it's that much better,” Mara told reporters. “I think, with the draft class that we just had, again, it's very unusual. You have six draftees, all of whom you think will help us going forward. I thought that was a huge step. 

“And the free agency that picked up between, you know, Runion and bringing Brian Burns in here, I think those are gonna help us going forward. I think once you solve the quarterback issue, a lot of these other things will improve.

With that said, why would Mara, who talks about wanting to see a better product on the field every year by season’s end, agree to run it back with Schoen and Daboll despite the team’s record regressing and uncertainty about the roster being better?

“I think, in Brian's case, he was the coach of the year two years ago. That didn't disappear all of a sudden--I still believe he can do that again,” Mara told reporters Monday morning after the players had completed their media interviews.

“And in Joe's case, I thought we had an outstanding draft class this year. I thought we had a really good free agency period. And I really liked the staff that he put together and built. And I think that they're the right two guys to lead us going forward. I understand, believe me, that that's not gonna be the most popular decision in Giants Land, but we believe it's the right decision for us going forward.”

The expectation all along was that Schoen was on more solid ground than Daboll, but what tipped the scale in Daboll’s favor, according to Mara, was his observations of how the players responded to the head coach and the staff at practice, even as the season began to deteriorate around them.  

“I'm at practice all the time. I go to the team meetings. I watch the players; I watch how they react. I still think he's the right guy,” Mara said.

Just because Mara and Tisch have signed off on retaining Daboll and Schoen doesn’t mean there isn’t work to be done. Mara spoke about the quarterback situation, which is probably priority one, two, and three for the Giants.

“That's obviously the number one issue for us going into this offseason is to find our quarterback in the future, whether that be via the draft or acquiring a veteran is gonna be up to them to decide,” he said.

But he wanted answers to other things that Schoen, Daboll, and the rest of the front office will need to work through, including Daboll’s insistence on calling plays and fixing the defense, which he felt was exploited a little too easily at times this past season.

“I'm not gonna put any kind of time limit on it, but I certainly understand how they're going with that,” Mara said when asked if there was an expiration date on the pair if the results don’t improve next year.

But Mara, who denied that having to pay dead money to either man had one or both been relieved of their respective duties, did say he liked the plan the two presented to him on Friday, the details of which he didn’t get into.

“Again, based on my observation of how they work together and how the players respond to them and how Joe is going about building the roster going forward, it's my instinct and my strong belief that we are going in the right direction,” Mara said.

“It's hard for me to say we're going in the right direction right now because we've been going backward. I hate having to go through this process. I hate having to answer these questions, but at the end of the day, you gotta take a calm, rational look at things, and we did that, and this is the decision we came up with.”

Next. Schoen and Daboll to REturn. New York Giants Will Retain Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll. dark

---

More Giants Coverage

• New York Giants’ 2025 Opponents Set

• New York Giants Week 18 Report Card: Philly Flop

• New York Giants to Pick Third in 2025 Draft

• Burning Questions Giants GM Joe Schoen Needs to Answer for Ownership

• Four Burning Questions Giants HC Brian Daboll Needs to Answer for Ownership

---

New York Giants On SI Social Media

• Follow and like us on Facebook.
• Submit your questions for our mailbag.
• Follow on Instagram.
• Check out the New York Giants on SI YouTube Channel.