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And the person who built this roster has somehow saved their job.\u00a0Giants general manager Joe Schoen, who owns the exact 20-40-1 record as Daboll, will get a chance to at least lead the coaching search and maybe even continue bringing in players. That is \u2026 confusing.<\/p>\n
One, this team is bad! The Giants have suffered some unfortunate injuries to Cam Skattebo and Malik Nabers, but Schoen built a team that has won just 11 of its previous 44 games. It doesn\u2019t make sense how he wiggled his way out of this, but he will get a chance to rectify four years of poor decision making.<\/p>\n
Second, the new head coach and Schoen won\u2019t be on the same timetable as Schoen desperately needs quarterback Jaxson Dart to develop<\/a> into a consistently good starter in order to keep his job. Dart has had some exciting moments this year, but he has taken way too much punishment and appears set to miss this week with a concussion.<\/a> This isn\u2019t to say that Dart will fail or he won\u2019t be healthy enough to come back, but putting him into an ecosystem where he can stay healthy while also not sacrificing what makes him an intriguing prospect is of the utmost importance. It\u2019s hard to say with any confidence that Schoen is the unequivocal right man for the job there.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t been all bad for Schoen. Nabers, Skattebo, tight end Theo Johnson, the trade for Brian Burns \u2014 there have been some good moves that he\u2019s made. But it\u2019s clearly not enough, or else New York wouldn\u2019t find itself in this position. The Giants have a nice collection of talent at the top of their roster, but that can be said about many teams in a salary-capped league.<\/p>\n The Giants should have cleaned house after last season and found themselves in no man\u2019s land with everything riding on the performance of a rookie quarterback. Now, they\u2019ll be hiring a head coach who might well be tasked with getting that quarterback up to speed in a new system immediately to save the general manager\u2019s job. It\u2019s just bad practice that we\u2019ve seen fail throughout the years. Alignment is key for success, and the Giants might partially fracture in their timeline for how they define it.<\/p>\n Mike McDaniel might save his job<\/p>\n The Dolphins \u2026 have been pretty solid lately! This team has been much better since it started so slowly, getting trounced in most of its games amid a 1-6 start. However, this team has been playing credible football lately to the point where there is optimism about where the Dolphins are and when the eventual reset happens.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Miami is 3-7 and not a threat to make the playoffs, but if you squint you can see things are slowly starting to come together, potentially delaying the decision on head coach Mike McDaniel\u2019s future by at least a year.<\/p>\n While the offense has always been the source of excitement and interest for the McDaniel-led Dolphins, the defense has had a strong turnaround compared to where it was to start the season. Over its first five games, Miami had the worst defense in football. According to TruMedia, the Dolphins allowed the most yards per drive (42.9), the highest success rate for opposing dropbacks (56.4%), and they ranked last in explosive play rate (13.9%) and 31st in expected points added per play (0.18). They looked destined to be one of the worst defenses in league history.<\/p>\n Don’t look now, but Mike McDaniel’s Miami Dolphins are 2-1 in their last three, and the defense and De’Von Achane have been balling out the past five weeks. (Photo by David Rosenblum\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Things have changed in a big way. Since Week 6, another five games worth of data, the Dolphins have been one of the better defenses in the league. They\u2019re ninth in yards per drive (28.4), 11th in success rate (39.9%) and they\u2019ve gone from allowing over three points per drive to 1.93 over their last five games. Most notably, they\u2019ve arguably been the best rushing defense in the league within that timespan. They rank first in expected points added per rush (-0.25) and fourth in success rate (33.1%), which is a massive jump from where they were at the start of the season when they were bottom two in both categories.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n If the Dolphins can continue that defensive performance throughout the rest of the season, they\u2019ll be competitive in every game. That improved play isn\u2019t coming against nobodies either. They completely dismantled Atlanta and Buffalo\u2019s running games, which is no small feat, and just bottled up the Bills\u2019 explosive offense for four quarters. Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver deserves a ton of credit for again figuring out how to fix things in the middle of the season. The defense is still doing the heavy lifting, though, as Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins\u2019 passing game continues to sputter this season.<\/p>\n What\u2019s worked on offense is the play of De\u2019Von Achane, who is doing whatever he can to keep the Dolphins moving the chains. In that same five-week timespan, 19.3% of Achane\u2019s 83 carries have gone for explosive runs and he ranks second in expected points added on rushes (14.1). McDaniel is still one of the best at dialing up a running game in the league and he has figured out how to keep the explosives going even though they still need to improve the passing game.<\/p>\n As much as McDaniel has struggled recently, it\u2019s fair to be dubious about Miami\u2019s ability to upgrade from him given where the peaks of this game have gone. If he can just have the Dolphins play more like they have over the past few weeks instead of the start of the season, the practical move might be to heavily invest in the offensive line and try one more time next season. This might not be done just yet.<\/p>\n We need a refund on these prime-time games<\/p>\n Hey, man. NFL, you OK? What\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The past few prime-time games have been disgusting to watch, with this week featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers barely participating<\/a> in a 25-10 loss to the Chargers<\/a> on Sunday Night Football, which was sandwiched between two 10-7 finishes in Broncos-Raiders on Thursday night<\/a> and Eagles-Packers on Monday night.<\/a><\/p>\n These games were so disorienting that by the end of the week, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni made one of the most baffling game management decisions ever when Jalen Hurts launched a go ball on fourth down that gave the Packers a chanc<\/a>e to win that game at the end \u2014 which, of course, they couldn\u2019t convert. It wasn\u2019t even like this was purely some elite defensive struggle. There is a difference between beautiful, cohesive defensive football and slop. That was slop.<\/p>\n This week followed up last week\u2019s prime-time slate of the Ravens blitzing the Dolphins, the Cardinals beating the Cowboys by two scores and the Seahawks calling off the dogs AT HALFTIME of their 38-14 win over the Commanders. Please, how is the nation going to defeat the weekly routine of Sunday Scaries without exciting NFL games to distract us? It feels like many of these island games have been tough to watch this season, but perhaps that\u2019s just sample size and the effects of injuries weighing on them.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a solution here. This is 100% complaining and confusion at how lopsided these games have been in recent weeks \u2014 and it is my right as an American to demand to be entertained.<\/p>\n Falcons\u2019 season has been a predictable disaster<\/p>\n The Atlanta Falcons seem to be fairly stunned with how poorly their season has gone. At 3-6 heading into a crucial stretch of divisional games, their season is on life support with the futures of head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot extremely in doubt.<\/p>\n![\"Don't](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/e148da10-cc80-42d3-b66d-7a30f57e9071.jpeg\"\/)
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