Finding right leader feels like crapshoot

JUST hire him. Go ahead, Giants, hire Brian Daboll and then salivate at the thought of him doing for Daniel Jones what he did for Josh Allen in Buffalo. Did you get a look at Allen and that dynamic Bills offense in their thrill-aminute playoff loss to the Chiefs the other night? The Giants’ offense is broken and Daboll can be the repair man.

Wait, what? You say a closer look at Daboll’s results, running offenses the past

13 years, reveals he might not be the Wizard of Ahhs after all? Yeah, hit pause on that one. Surely, then, sign up Brian Flores, who (we assume) got a raw deal in Miami and will bring that drive spawned from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn to a Giants’ outfit that needs discipline and intensity. Pardon? The “Brian doesn’t always play well with others’’ checked off on his report card is a real concern? Better move on.

Spin the wheel, play it safe and call it for Dan Quinn. Jersey guy. Solid. Winning record as a head coach. Hold on, we’re getting a text from Atlanta? Take a look at his last three years (14-23) with the Falcons. Pass.

There is no way of knowing for sure and the smart money is that whoever the Giants pick will fail. Too harsh? This is less about the Giants and an inability to choose wisely and more about the utter randomness and seeming blindfolded dart-throwing accuracy when projecting which failed former head coach or coordinator will be a franchise savior. Answer: Very few of them. There is a problem in the NFL in that it A) Does not produce enough quality head-coaching candidates or B) Has little idea how to identify head-coach prospects or C) Is filled with owners who do not have the patience or the foresight to hang with their hirings through the rough patches or D) varying degrees of A, B and C. There are 18 teams in the league either looking for a new head coach or currently employing its head coach for two or fewer years. The Giants are looking for their fifth in the last eight years, engaging in self-fulfilling failure. “We have met the enemy and he is us,’’ as Pogo so aptly put it. The Giants met Tuesday with Daboll, this year’s Hot Coordinator. He has risen to head-coach-inwaiting status, helped along by every exploit from Allen, the quarterback Daboll was entrusted to develop into the running and throwing machine he turned into.

A closer look at Daboll, 46, through the years reveals he is no miracle worker. He was the offensive coordinator for two years (2009 and 2010) with the Browns and they were 32nd and 29th in total offense, with Daboll calling plays for Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson and Seneca Wallace. One year later, Daboll ran the offense in Miami and the Dolphins improved 10 spots to 20th in the NFL with Matt Moore and Chad Henne at quarterback. With the Chiefs in 2012, Daboll’s offense was last in the league in scoring with Matt Cassel and Quinn running the plays Daboll signaled in.

This is not a knock on Daboll, but it does pull back the curtain on what every team must realize — most don’t — when projecting the metamorphosis of a coordinator into a head coach. Most character actors aren’t leading men.

Co-owner John Mara, likely wounded by Ben McAdoo and then Joe Judge, prefers the next guy has previous head-coaching experience. But who? Sometimes — often — failure the first time around is an indicator of what can be expected the next time around. What you prefer and what makes the most sense often are not compatible.

The past three hiring cycles have given us Freddie Kitchens, Vic Fangio, Flores, Joe Judge, Matt Rhule, Dan Campbell, Arthur Smith, Robert Saleh and David Culley as first-time NFL head coaches who are already gone or struggling to hang on. There are so-far successful first-timers such as Kliff Kingsbury, Matt LaFleur, Zac Taylor, Kevin Stefanski, Brandon Staley and Nick Sirianni. It is not guesswork as much as it is finding the best leaders and surrounding them with the smartest front office and hoping for the best.

Someone who helped launch Daboll’s NFL coaching career described him as “very personable’’ and “very good X’s and O’s’’ and “players like and respect him.’’ Said Daboll can be a “ball-buster’’ and he meant it as a compliment. This is someone who knows Daboll as well as anyone and has great belief in him.

Last question: Can Daboll command the entire room?

“Don’t know,’’ was the response. “We know he can command half of it.’’

Yeah, we know he can command half of it. It is the other half that makes all the difference.