No one could have witnessed what went down in Kansas City in 2012, when Brian Daboll was the offensive coordinator and Nick Sirianni was his first-year wide receivers coach, and thought, “I see greatness from both these guys.’’
Under Daboll’s direction, the Chiefs scored 211 points, an average of 13.2 points a game — dead last in the NFL. The team’s quarterbacks, Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn, combined for eight touchdown passes and 20 interceptions. The receiver corps, led by Dexter McCluster and Dwayne Bowe, did not pose much of a threat. The only real option was to hand the ball to Jamaal Charles, who rushed for 1,509 yards.
After the Chiefs finished 2-14, head coach Romeo Crennel was fired along with his staff. Daboll and Sirianni had to pick up and move on.
The Chiefs hired Andy Reid and that turned out just fine.
On Sunday, Sirianni brings his surging Eagles into MetLife Stadium to face Daboll’s struggling Giants. These are two of the rising stars in the NFL head coaching constellation.
Sirianni, 41, in his second year is in command of the best team in the league, and his work with Jalen Hurts can be viewed as a template for how a franchise should handle and develop a young quarterback.
Daboll, 47, has been at it longer than Sirianni, and it took him longer to get hired for his first head coaching gig. When Daboll took over a rebuilding job with the Giants for 2022, the expectations were low. Yet Daboll showed an ability to win a bunch of close games, got the Giants to 6-1 and 7-2, and still has his team in playoff contention despite going 1-3-1 in the past five games.
If you saw this coming for either guy back in 2012, well, your vision is a great deal stronger than 20/20.
“It wasn’t by any means a year that either of us probably want to remember,’’ Sirianni said this week. “But the things I learned, particularly about defensive football — obviously, Brian was an offensive coordinator, but he taught me so many things about the defensive side of the ball that I know was significant to him and his development.
“I always felt like [Daboll] took me under his wing and said, ‘I’m going to really help this guy.’ I really felt that way about myself and [offensive quality control coach] Jim Bob Cooter, we were there together, he really took us under his wing and wanted to teach us as much as he possibly could because I think he always would say, he saw something in us and he really wanted to contribute to our success as coaches. And he did that. He’s just such a smart coach.
“We really bonded a lot over wide receiver play, a lot; in the pass game and also quarterback play, but particularly the conversations that we had about wide receivers.’’
There was a built-in understanding. Daboll and Sirianni are from towns about 70 miles apart in Western New York. Sirianni is from Jamestown. Daboll was born in Welland, Ontario, but grew up in West Seneca, a suburb of Buffalo.
“Just always had a connection with him,’’ is how Sirianni put it.
“The things that he was able to do to help my career, I feel like he took me … to the next level and then some,’’ Sirianni said. “That’s what we try to do with players, how can we get these guys to raise their game to another level.
“Well, Brian Daboll did that for me as a coach. I felt like I was here and he took me to a couple levels higher because of the things he taught me about offense, about defensive football. I just have so much respect for him and really appreciate everything he has done for my career because he made me a way better coach just being around him for a year.’’
Their year together with the Chiefs was an abject failure on the field, but both assistants picked up the pieces. Daboll found a safe landing spot, returning to the Patriots for a second stint with Bill Belichick, though he had to take a step back and pick up his career as a tight ends coach. Sirianni went to the Chargers, working for Mike McCoy, also accepting a demotion to an offensive quality control assignment.
The big bump for Sirianni came when Frank Reich hired him as the offensive coordinator in Reich’s first year as Colts head coach in 2018. Still, that did not make Sirianni a top candidate during the 2021 hiring cycle, but the Eagles saw something in him and thrust him into a pressure-packed spot as the head coach to follow Doug Pederson, who guided the Eagles to the first Super Bowl victory in franchise history.
Sirianni went 9-8 in his head coaching debut season before losing to the Buccaneers in the playoffs. In Year 2, he has the 11-1 Eagles flying higher than any team in the league.
Daboll’s circuitous path to the top of the coaching ladder continued after he and Sirianni parted ways. He stayed in New England for four years, never in a more prominent role than tight ends coach, and then hooked on with Nick Saban at Alabama. It was a productive one-year partnership. With Daboll running the offense and Hurts and true freshman Tua Tagovailoa (who came on in relief in the title game) at quarterback, Alabama won the national championship. That high-profile college assignment helped Daboll land in Buffalo as offensive coordinator for head coach Sean McDermott in Buffalo, where he helped develop Josh Allen and establish the Bills as an NFL power. Four years later, the Giants came calling.
Sirianni and Daboll will renew acquaintances on Sunday.
“We have always stayed in touch since that year,’’ Sirianni said. “I always felt like, man, I wish I had more years around him because of how much knowledge I learned in just that one year from him. I can’t say enough good things about him. I can see why his team is playing so well because they are sound [and] because they have a really good head football coach over there in New York.’’
It’s nice to share
Can one of the other running backs come out to play? Apparently not.
Saquon Barkley carried the ball 18 times in Sunday’s 20-20 tie with the Commanders. The only other Giants player with a rushing attempt was the quarterback, Daniel Jones, who ran it 12 times. This is an imbalance. Not having a second running back with any carries is unusual — and probably not desirable.
The reluctance to use Matt Breida is a bit confounding. He is a proven player in the league, a capable runner out of the backfield and a threat to contribute in the passing game. Presumably he is healthy. He was on the field for only nine snaps — only one snap alongside Barkley. Gary Brightwell, who ran hard (five carries, 31 yards) in Dallas his first real opportunity, did not log a single snap on offense.
Barkley was on pace for a big game at halftime (18-60), but that devolved quickly. He ran the ball seven times for just three total three yards in the second half and overtime. Perhaps sharing the load a bit makes sense.
Asked and answered
Here are two questions that have come up recently that we will attempt to answer as accurately as possible:
Does Brian Daboll not trust Daniel Jones? If he has trust in his quarterback, why doesn’t he turn him loose more often and allow him to be more aggressive in the passing game?
There was a time late in Tom Coughlin’s tenure as the head coach when he was making some uncharacteristically reckless decisions, being over-aggressive in trying to keep his offense on the field. After a few games of this, Coughlin grew exasperated at constantly being questioned. “I know my team better than anyone else’’ was his retort. Translation: Coughlin had no trust in his defense and knew he had to take chances on offense to avoid having to put his defense on the field. This is what is going on with Daboll and the offense, in a sense. His track record as an offensive play-caller is to be aggressive and to throw the ball. He realizes he has to instruct offensive coordinator Mike Kafka to tone it down, given the liabilities of the offensive line in pass protection and, more so, the lack of talent at wide receiver. Like it or not, Daboll realizes his first Giants team has limitations, and he is trying to squeeze out as many wins as possible in spite of them, by staying conservative in the play-calling.
It looked as if Rodarius Williams played well in Dallas. Why was he not used at all against the Commanders?
This was a bit of a head-scratcher. Against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, Williams recorded his first NFL interception and made a few other plays in coverage. He played 50 snaps on defense. The next game? He was the only player other than backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor to not get on the field against the Commanders. Williams was so frustrated that he vented on Twitter. Daboll explained that he sits down each week with the defensive staff and they all figure out which players work best for the next opponent. Some players in the secondary, including safety Julian Love, play every snap. Most others, based on strengths and weaknesses the coaching staff sees in them, are used situationally. “The guys that were in there this week were the guys we wanted in there,’’ Daboll said. Translation: Williams did not play as well as we might have thought against the Cowboys, and he was not a fit for how the Giants planned to defend what the Commanders wanted to do with their passing game. These decisions are not always correct, by the way, but the coaches are the ones who spend hour upon hour with these players, and they should know the best way to deploy their personnel.