Giants Huddle: Front Office Edition | HC Brian Daboll

Head coach Brian Daboll joins the latest episode of the Giants Huddle: Front Office Edition podcast to reflect on the 2022 season and talk about planning for success in 2023.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Front Office. Edition of the Giants Little Podcast is
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It's time to get inside the Giants Huddle on Giants
dot Com. Here we go, Here we go on the
Giants Mobile. Let him in there, let's go out of
the Giants Podcast Network. Welcome to another edition of the

(00:21):
Giants Huddle podcast on Bob Popa. We're joined by the
head coach of the New York Giants, Brian Dable and coach.
Now that you've had some time to process this last year,
how would you describe the two twenty two New York
Football Giants season. It was a start. You know, we
got a lot of work to do. You know, it
was obviously good to get to the playoffs and get
a win, but didn't that end the way we want

(00:43):
it to end. And you know, certainly have a lot
of things that we can do better. And you know,
that's what we're gonna do during the offseason is really
focus on our football team and the things we can
do better, whether that's scheme decision making, schedules, player acquisition.
You can't just take that season and start off the

(01:05):
next season, it's it's a whole new year with a
whole new team, and that's what we got to try
to build. Coach, what was a favorite memory of the season. Yeah,
I'd say that, you know, the first game, you know,
getting that win in Tennessee and having Sheep come over
and say quin and talking to the defensive guys and
watching a miss kick and then going into the locker room.

(01:27):
That was a special moment. Each year is built with
special moments, tough moments and special moments, and I'd say
that was the first one of the season for me.
Describe what the past year was like for you personally
as a first year head coach. No, it's been good.
I try. I try to do the best job that
I can and got a lot of good people that

(01:50):
work with me to help me do my job, and
it's a collective effort. That was a dream come true,
but a lot of work to be done when you
took over this job. What was one of the biggest
challenges for you in year one? Yeah, you know, it
took me so long to get to hear so I've seen.
I've seen a lot in my twenty five years. Coach.
In twenty some years in the league. You know, try

(02:13):
to be as prepared as I could be. I think
the biggest thing is just surrounding yourself with good people.
You know, Joe and his staff on that side, the
scouting staff, the coaches, all the support staff in the building.
You know, you have a job to do as a
head coach. That's to be a leader and try to
help your team get better each day. Your staff get

(02:35):
better each day. But you also rely on a lot
of other people to help you. So a lot of
lessons learned. Grateful for the opportunity, but thankful for the
people that I'm with. What were some of your top
goals heading into the two twenty two season at you
and your staff were able to achieve? Well, I think
we got better each week. You know, I thought we
built built a team that had good chemistry, We weathered

(02:58):
some adversity throughout the season, We got off to a
fast start. We want a playoff game. But again, you know,
all those things are fine, and it was it was
good to lay a foundation, but we have a lot
of work to do and we're starting right now getting
ready for the twenty twenty three season. One thing that
stood out was you were consistent in your message all season.

(03:19):
It's about the process, the preparation, not just the result.
Can you elaborate on this a little more? Sure? We
live in a results world. You know, this is a
popular sport, and you know it can get to you
pretty quick when things don't go the way you want
them to go. So I think just teaching the guys
about the next step, the next process, the next practice,

(03:40):
that's very important to us as a coaching staff. You
can only control the things that you can control, and
that's what you do during the week to try to
put yourself in position on a Sunday or a Monday
or a Thursday, to go out there and execute for
sixty minutes. And sometimes it doesn't go the way you
wanted to. But if you put everything you got into
it the right way, you can live with the results.

(04:01):
You know. The hard part about things is if you
don't do that and you still win. And that's really
that's tough, you know, as a coach, And you know
I never felt that way. I thought, you know, our
guys really compete, It worked hard, did the right stuff
throughout the week. So again after a loss, you take
it hard, but I could live with it based on
you know, what I did and what they did to prepare.

(04:24):
It's pretty amazing. There were three hundred roster transactions during
the season. Just talk a little bit about the importance
of roster balancing, evaluation during the year and how your
staff worked diligently to put the best players on the field. Yeah,
well that starts with Joe and the personnel staff of
of bringing guys in to work out, to staying on
top of the league and who's out there. And you know,

(04:45):
once we bring people in, it's it's a job of
the player, but of the coach and i'd say the
position coach to get them ready to play as quick
as as we can get them ready to play. And
if we think they can help us, they come in
out there day. You know, sometimes you gotta be ready
to play on Sunday if we think that that's the
best thing for our team. So it's a really a
group effort, you know, again, starts with the scouting staff

(05:08):
and then goes to the position coaches and the coordinators
for the job that they did. The two twenty two
AP Coach of the Year. What does this award mean
to you? It means you've got a lot of good
people around me. You know, I wouldn't be there if
if I didn't have the players out there on the
field most importantly competing, the support staff, the coaches doing
their job. It's really a group effort. I know that.

(05:30):
You know, I was blessed to get that award, but
it's really to me a team award because it's such
a team sport. So I'm very thankful for the people
that I get to work with every day. You know,
the NFL never slows down. You went from the Divisional
round of the playoffs to the Senior Bowl in a
matter of two weeks. What about that short turnaround and
the preparation for the offseason. Well, that's just the next season.

(05:51):
That's how the National Football League works, you know. I
like getting a jump start on the draft. You know,
Joe has been and his staff have been looking at
these guys for a long long time. So I'm just
trying to, you know, figure out some of these guys,
who they are, where they go to school, get my
first look at these guys. So it was a good
week down there just to kind of sit back and

(06:12):
hear some of the scouch talk and watch some practice
and talk to some some prospects. You know, during the
season you locked into your current roster. When does your
process begin on college player evaluations and how often are
you and Joe in communication about that. Yeah, mine doesn't
start until basically I get down to Mobile. You know,
I watch college games on Saturday sometimes, but my focus

(06:35):
is on the season and our football team. Coach, you
have the East West Shrine, you have the Senior Bowl,
the NFLPA, et cetera. How important is the college all
star season of games to evaluate players? Yeah, I think
everything is important, you know, I think you know, they
do a good job down there at the Senior Bowl.
Jim Naggy and his staff does a good job. And
it was you know, it was good down there to

(06:56):
get some eyes on players and talk to some players.
And you know, you come back from that, you do
some more stuff. You know, now you start getting ready
for the Combine and NFL year. Obviously, after the All
Star Games, it's kind of right into the NFL Combine.
What are some of the biggest benefits to this week
long event. We'll get your eyes on a lot of
the players, and really, you know, what's a critical part

(07:19):
for our process is our interviews with the players. They
get spend fifteen minutes with them and get a feel
for who they are a little bit and talk some football.
So again it's just an introductory It's part of the process.
You know. There's a lot of other things that go
along with this, pro days or individual workouts and meetings
and zoom calls and just one step part of the process.

(07:40):
Did any members of your twenty twenty two rookie class
impress you specifically at the combine last year? No? I think, Look,
the combine is again for us, it's part of the process.
So they get their medical check, they do their workouts,
they have meetings and you know, you just put it is.
So this is another step and another part of our
evaluation and process. Coach, I think about it a lot. Smart, tough, dependable,

(08:04):
that's the motto. How can you tell if a player
has these qualities during evaluation? Yeah, I think it takes
a lot of work. You know, watching them on tape,
you can curely see things that show up that show
their instincts and their intelligence. But then you have to
you know, sit down and meet with them and go
through things. And each team has a different way to
do that. You know, dependability. You know, you're doing your

(08:28):
research on these guys. You know, are they doing what
they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it
on a consistent basis? And then the toughness part of
it is. You know you can see that on tape,
but there's also an element of mental toughness nowadays that
I think is so very very important. It's not just
you know, how you deal with after a loss, it's
sometimes how you deal with things that that are out
of your control. You know, the league is very compacted.

(08:51):
Just a week after the combine, there's free agency, a
lot of important decisions regarding your current players and other
free agents. What's the ultimate goal heading into free agency?
Let's say it the same thing as with the draft.
We're just trying to put together the best team we
can for the twenty twenty three season. And you know,
it's not just collecting talent. You have to get the

(09:14):
right people with the right mindset in your building to
help develop your culture and your team, and that's what
we try to do each day. Coach, thanks for a
couple of minutes. Always great catching up with you and
Giants fans don't forget on the Giants YouTube channel. You
don't want to miss this new edition of Giants Life.
The process getting you're ready for the draft. Well, that

(09:35):
wraps it up. I'm Bob Papa. You've been listening to
the Giants Huddle Podcast. The Front Office edition of the
Giants Little Podcast is brought to you by the City
College of New York. Explore CCNY, Visit CCNY dot Q
dot edu.