When the Giants stumbled toward another dismal season under Brian Daboll, frustration at MetLife Stadium became impossible to ignore. Fans showed up with banners demanding a full reset—head coach gone, general manager gone. The message was loud, clear, and relentless. But team owner John Mara didn’t flinch. Despite the noise, he publicly backed both Daboll and GM Joe Schoen, confirming, “Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll will continue in their respective roles with the organization.”

Mara later justified his decision by pointing to Daboll’s 2022 NFL Coach of the Year honors, saying, “That didn’t disappear all of a sudden. I still believe he can do that again.” On paper, it’s a fair defense—but reality has pushed back hard. Since that award-winning debut, Daboll’s Giants have gone just 9-25 over two seasons. The spark that once earned him accolades has yet to resurface, and Mara’s gamble now hinges on whether a turnaround is still realistically within reach.

And entering the 2025 season, that means only one thing: Brian Daboll will be one of the head coaches who’s on the hot seat for the 2025 season. Enter podcaster John Middlekauff, who just observed that “Some of these guys know they’re scr—wed,” he said, addressing Daboll along with the other head coaches who had a poor season in 2024.

“If you’re Brian Daboll, you head to vacation, you think, my head coaching career is depending on Russell Wilson throwing touchdowns?” Middlekauff added. Following a couple of disastrous seasons, Daboll’s future now depends on how Russell Wilson performs in the 2025 season. The Giants acquired the Super Bowl-winning quarterback earlier this offseason and went on to draft a quarterback in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft—Jaxson Dart.

And entering the 2025 season, Brian Daboll has a couple of jobs to do: get the most out of Wilson and Dart, and lead the Giants to a winning season. And if he or maybe—just maybe, Wilson fails? That’s going to be tricky for the head coach. Because let’s face it—Daboll took the helm as the Giants’ head coach back in 2022, where he led the team 9-7 record in the regular season with Daniel Jones. A great mark. No argument. But after that, everything went south.

Injury-bound Jones had a 3-13 record in the next two seasons. The quarterback-head coach duo led the Giants to 3rd and 4th in the NFC East in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Their 3-14 record in 2024 tied for the worst in the league, along with the Titans and the Browns. Fast forward to now, and with Wilson alongside a promising Ole Miss prospect anchoring the quarterback room, the head coach’s future likely hinges on how the 2025 season ultimately unfolds.

What does Russell Wilson bring to Brian Daboll’s Giants?

The regular season won’t start until September this year. But the Giants are optimistic about the next few months, given that they’ve snagged Russell Wilson in free agency. And it makes sense. The veteran quarterback has the pedigree to lead the team. He’s a ten-time Pro Bowler, and yes, he knows what it feels like to lift a Lombardi—something the Giants have been missing ever since Eli Manning hung up his cleats.

The general manager doubled down on the team’s confidence in Wilson. “Players know players, and he’s done it at a high level for a long time,” Schoen said moments after signing Wilson on a one-year deal… “Again, he’s got the skins on the wall. He’s had a lot of success in the league. He won a Super Bowl. Some of the production that he had on the field, we haven’t had at that position since Eli.”

And the 36-year-old quarterback has proved it during the team drills. A Giants beat reporter called Wilson the “surprise of OTAs and minicamp.” He noted that the quarterback has been the team’s most impressive offensive player. On the first day of the minicamp, Wilson reportedly completed 9 passes out of 13, racking up a couple of touchdowns as well. One could just feel the positive vibe.

To make it interesting, Darius Slayton said that, “His (Wilson’s) knowledge of the game has shown already. Obviously, he has amazing talent with the ball. Accuracy, great touch on the deep balls. I don’t really know that he’s missed more than one or two deep balls this whole camp. He is really accurate, really smart. He’s helped keep us in good plays throughout the whole camp. So, his impact has been felt for sure.”

And this sentiment was echoed by some of the other talents on the Giants’ roster. The fourth-year wide receiver, Wan’Dale Robinson, was catching passes from Wilson for the first time. Yet he felt the connection better than he actually expected. “Even the first time we threw, me and Slay were both like, this is actually better than we expected,” Robinson noted. “And so, we were ecstatic about it and couldn’t be more happy that he’s our quarterback.”

Russell Wilson will enter the 2025 season after five straight losses in the 2024 season. He has a lot to prove as a veteran quarterback, and so does the head coach, Brian Daboll. Safe to say that it’s a make-or-break season for the quarterback-head coach duo.