Why?
It's just a simple word but it's a word that has summed up the Giants off season so far, and likely will be a question that is carried well into the season. Simply, why?
Giants fans are asking that over and over this week after New York has decided to run things back with the same General Manager and the same Head Coach for the 2025 season. Both Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll will be back in their same positions, despite failing to meet pretty much every criteria for them and the team this past season.
In fact, as most Giants fans have pointed out there isn't much that these two have done right for a while now. You can argue Daboll at least did a good coaching job a couple years ago, but Schoen was shown how limited his decision making can be when the likely NFL Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley went to the Eagles. Schoen was on HBO's Hard Knocks and it showed a behind the scenes look at how Barkley got away, and stained his reputation.
This team went just 3-14 this past season and just 6-11 the season prior to that. They are in a division with the Eagles who have gone the the Super Bowl recently, the Cowboys who were a playoff team last season, and the Commanders who joined the playoffs this year.
So again that question bubbles to the surface like New Year's champagne, why? Why are they back?
We can speculate on a few things. First, the Giants organization doesn't like heavy turnover and they never have. They pride themselves on being a stable franchise and they have conducted their business in that very same manner for quite some time. That stability has been shaken in recent years during the Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, and Joe Judge eras. So getting back to being a respected franchise seems to be the prevailing thought. When Mara was asked about it he admitted that the team has gone backwards and mentioned stability as one of the reasons he didn't want to make wholesale changes.
The second, and easier reason for fans to swallow is that they lacked a competent QB in Daniel Jones. Part of the reason why Daboll was brought in was to lift Jones up to be a good QB, so for some that answer doesn't work, but it's a viable excuse.
As Bill Parcells used to say 'if you want me to cook the meal, let me buy the groceries", so perhaps this is Mara and the Giants allowing Daboll and Schoen to finally get their own signal caller. That probably doesn't sit easy with the Giants fan base who are watching some pretty impressive names be interviewed around the league for head coaching and GM roles. We have no idea who that QB might be and in all reality even they don't know. What we do know is who the Giants GM and Head Coach will be for the 2025 season, but we aren't quite sure why.