Kyle Rudolph (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Kyle Rudolph believes the New York Giants may have been a little too quick in firing head coach Brian Daboll.
Daboll, who was the 2022 NFL Coach of the Year, was fired earlier in the week, midway through his fourth season with the Giants. The firing came after the Giants lost four consecutive games, including blowing major leads in the fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos (19 points) and the Chicago Bears (10 points).
After experiencing great success in his first season in New York in 2022, the Giants registered the second-worst winning percentage (.250) over his final two-and-a-half seasons.
However, there appeared to be some optimism in recent weeks after rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart was inserted into the lineup. The Giants managed to pull off upset wins over the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles in two of Dart’s first three starts.
But their recent losing streak and blown fourth-quarter leads ended up leading to Daboll’s firing. Rudolph – a former Giants tight end – says that may have been a mistake to fire Daboll so quickly into Dart’s tenure as the starting quarterback.
“The quarterback has shown a lot of promise,” says Rudolph in a one-on-one interview with RG on behalf of his partnership with Cymbiotika. “You look at what he did with Josh Allen and Buffalo, you look at the similarities between Jaxson Dart and Josh Allen. It’s one of those things. They’re firing the head coach, but the GM is staying. I don’t know. I feel like if you’re Daboll, I just got my quarterback, we take the kid, the young kid in the first round. He shows ultimate promise that they’re a young team that needs to figure out how to win games.”
Rudolph says the Giants could have four more wins if they were able to finish off their fourth quarters, something every young team goes through.
“They’ve been in situations late in the second half of games, obviously, they haven’t been able to finish,” says Rudolph of the Giants.
“They’re fourth quarters away from having four wins as opposed to four losses. I feel like that’s just something throughout the course of the maturity and development of a team, you start to establish a culture and instill these discipline and values that as your young team gets older, you learn how to win those close games instead of losing them.”
“Ultimately, they made the decision to move on again,” Rudolph continues to say. “You have a young quarterback that is your franchise quarterback. You believe in him. You want to have an offensive coach that can develop him. Well, you had one. I’m not really sure the direction there, but they’ve definitely got the promising piece in Jaxson Dart at quarterback.”
Dart Represents Optimism for NY’s Future
It’s worth noting that Dart exited the second half of that game against the Chicago Bears in Week 10 with a head injury. The 2025 first-round draft pick has shown tremendous promise, throwing 10 touchdowns against three interceptions with a 93.5 passer rating. He’s also added 317 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in just seven starts, ranking third in the NFL in rushing yards.
The fact that Dart is doing this with a Giants roster that finished last season 3-14 is what makes it even more impressive.
Rudolph calls Dart a “promising piece” and compares him once again to Allen, the reigning NFL MVP.
“Super talented,” says Rudolph of Dart. “He reminds me of Josh Allen. He has the ability with his legs. I think he’s had a rushing touchdown in his first four games as a starter. He’s a quarterback that has incredible arm talent, but also can make plays with his legs. I think that’s something that we saw Josh Allen do early in his career in Buffalo and we’re continuing to see it now.”
Rudolph says it’s hard for a young quarterback to learn a new system, something Dart will be forced to do when the Giants hire their new head coach before the start of the 2026 season.
“One of the hardest things for a young quarterback is to go learn a completely new system,” says Rudolph. “Brian Daboll, he’s a coach that developed Josh Allen. He’s a coach who’s known for his offensive scheme, everything that he did in Buffalo. We’ll see. Ultimately, the organization felt like it was best to move on. For what reasons, I may not know. But you certainly would believe that you want to give your young quarterback the best opportunity to develop and have some continuity. Now here in his first two years, he’s going to have two different systems that he has to learn.”