ORLANDO – John Mara will be asked for a vote of confidence in Daniel Jones at Monday’s State of the Giants address at the 2024 NFL Owners Meeting.
The Giants’ co-owner will have his temperature taken on the possibility of picking a quarterback in the first round of April’s NFL Draft, as well.
But Mara’s QB analysis will only be a footnote to the level of confidence he shows in GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll entering year three of their regime with the franchise.
Because last season was a total disaster.
Schoen built an offensive line that couldn’t protect the newly minted Jones. Daboll oversaw the 30th-ranked offense in a 32-team league. Their plan to keep players healthy backfired.
And Daboll’s lack of composure and divisive oversight prompted a coaching staff exodus led by the resignation of defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
That’s in the past, sure. But Mara hasn’t addressed it publicly yet. Daboll hasn’t done an interview with the New York media since all of that came to light, either.
So the most relevant question to all of the Giants’ 2024 operations is how concerned Mara is about what he witnessed from September through January, and how much pressure there is on his GM and especially his coach to steer this rebuild back on track immediately.
Not that anyone needs a reminder, but Mara is the conscience of this franchise, its beating heart. He always has spoken for the team, and with co-owner Steve Tisch recently not being a forward-facing figure, Mara’s words carry all the more weight when he speaks.
Not long ago, Mara’s passion and frustration might have prompted him to release a statement during last year’s maddening 2-8 start or after January’s ugly autopsy.
This is still Mara’s team. Don’t misconstrue that. But the Giants’ co-owner is doing his best by all appearances to let Schoen build the roster and set the team’s narratives without public interference.
One year ago, though, at the 2023 NFL Owners Meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., Mara admitted the Giants still had a “long way to go” coming off a 2022 playoff berth and a Wild Card win in Minnesota.
So it will be fascinating to hear what he thinks of his franchise’s direction now.
He could view Daboll as the 2022 Coach of the Year who simply slipped up in 2023. Or he could believe there are warning signs that the first half of Year One was the anomaly.
Whichever opinion Mara shares will be instructive.
And remember, this is not lost on anyone: Bill Belichick is a free agent, available to coach an NFL team in 2025.
“We kid [Daboll]: right now he’s Bono walking around New York City, but I’ve told him, ‘In this business it doesn’t take long to go from Bono to bozo,’” Mara told SiriusXM NFL Radio one year ago during a prescient moment. “‘So don’t get your head too big right now.’”
Daboll preempted this week’s NFL Owners’ Meeting by speaking to NFL Network, and the interview on the league’s website made no mention of Daboll’s dysfunctional staff management related to offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, Martindale and others.
Daboll is scheduled to meet reporters at Tuesday morning’s NFC Coaches Breakfast, which will be his first public opportunity to discuss his culpability and side of the story.
The quarterback decision looms largely within the framework of Schoen’s and Daboll’s effort to turn the franchise around and create sustainable winning, of course.
That’s why Schoen, Daboll and the Giants are studying the NFL Draft quarterbacks closely.
They need a solution at the most important position in the sport, and the clock is ticking. It’s just a question of how loudly inside those East Rutherford, N.J., walls.
Daboll told NFL Network that when Jones gets back, “he’ll be the guy.” But the Giants signed Drew Lock as insurance and possible competition to Jones, who has suffered two serious neck injuries in the past three years and is coming off a torn ACL in his right leg.
And this quarterback draft class could represent Schoen’s and Daboll’s best opportunity to get their own young QB in their building.
Balancing that potential investment with the need to show immediate progress with a 2024 rebound, however, could be tricky. This is still Mara’s team, after all.
That is why it’s necessary to hear the co-owners take on his leadership, though:
Schoen’s and Daboll’s standing in the organization coming off such a discouraging 2023 season will say everything about how much patience or urgency they can afford to show.
