Hartford Courant

Daboll’s background on offense could be huge selling point

- By Tom Rock

NEW YORK — Brian Daboll has an advantage no other apparent finalist for Giants head coach brings to the interview process.

No, not his long and close working relationsh­ip with new general manager Joe Schoen from their time together in Buffalo. Though that certainly helps.

No, not his time on a staff that went to the postseason in four of the past five years and won back-to-back division titles. But again, that doesn’t hurt.

What really sets Daboll apart from the competitio­n is that he is the only candidate with an offensive background who the Giants seem to be considerin­g. For a team that managed to score just over two touchdowns a game this past season (15.2 points) and hasn’t averaged more than 24 points per game since 2015, the biggest problem the franchise faces is figuring out a way to get to the end zone with more regularity.

Daboll is the only current option for the Giants who has proved himself capable of getting that part of the job done. He had a second interview with the Giants on Tuesday, meeting with Schoen and ownership at the team facility in East

Rutherford, New Jersey. He had met with the Giants on a video conference on Friday just hours after Schoen was named to his new position.

Every other person the Giants have interviewe­d or are known to be interviewi­ng for the job comes from a defensive background. That includes Dan Quinn, who met with the Giants in person on Monday; Patrick Graham, who is scheduled to meet with them on Wednesday afternoon; and Brian Flores, who is on the Thursday dance card. They have varying levels of experience (Quinn and Flores have both been head coaches) and knowledge of the organizati­on (Graham, still under contract as the defensive coordinato­r, is a popular assistant coach who has been with the team the past two years) that top Daboll. But each would have to bring someone else in with them to fix the anemic offense.

Schoen’s day: The Giants will introduce Schoen at a news conference at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday. It will be Schoen’s first public appearance since taking the general manager job on Friday . ... Ryan Poles, a finalist for the Giants’ GM job, was hired by the Bears as their general manager on Tuesday. Poles was the executive director of player personnel for Kansas City.

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