NFL Coaching Matters: 2022 New York Giants Offense and Coaching Staff Preview

July 31, 2022

Eli Grabanski breaks down the 2022 New York Giants' coaching staff in search of buy-lows, fantasy football sleepers, and risers based on play-calling and historical data.

After every NFL season, NFL teams take the time to evaluate not only the players but also the coaching staff and front office as well. While many teams choose to retain the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator, a few other teams opt to go in a new direction with their coaching staff.

One team that shook up its core coaching staff this offseason was the New York Giants, with former head coach Joe Judge, former offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, and former defensive coordinator Patrick Graham all departing this offseason as the team brings in Brian Daboll (head coach), Mike Kafka (offensive coordinator), and Don Martindale (defensive coordinator) to serve as the team's new coaches for the 2022-23 season.

Today's article will be the second to last entry in this series and looks at the potential impact this coaching staff will have on the players, trying to pinpoint the Giants players' fantasy values in it.

The Baseline

To get a better understanding of the value the Giants coaches bring to this team, we can look at the NFL league averages in each of the past two years in a variety of statistical categories and then compare them to the averages achieved by the Giants' coaches. Here are 'The Baseline' NFL league averages over the past couple of years:

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Defense Impact

Previous Coaching Staff

In order to get an understanding of how the Giants' fantasy players may be impacted this year, we also need to look at some of the key members of the New York Giants' previous coaching staff: former head coach Joe Judge, former offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, and former defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. By doing this, we will have a better understanding of where the new regime is starting from and where the primary changes will occur.

Former Head Coach: Joe Judge

Joe Judge primarily comes from a special teams background, spending 2015 to 2019 as the New England Patriots special teams coordinator. But because he also did spend a year as a wide receivers coach of the Patriots back in 2019, we will include some of the Giants' offensive statistics from his time as the team's head coach. Please focus more on offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and his statistics from his time with the Giants.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Former Offensive Coordinator: Jason Garrett

Jason Garrett served as the New York Giants offensive coordinator from 2020 to 2021. Prior to taking this role, Garrett spent 13 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys as an offensive coordinator from 2007 to 2010 and as the head coach from 2010 to 2019. Below are some of his team's offensive statistics over the course of his career as either an offensive coordinator or head coach.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

*Jason Garrett missed the Cleveland Browns game in 2020 due to COVID-19 protocols

**Jason Garrett was fired just 10 games into the 2021-2022 season

Former Defensive Coordinator: Patrick Graham

Patrick Graham served as the New York Giants defensive coordinator from 2020 to 2021. He also has previously served as a defensive coordinator for the 2019 Miami Dolphins. Below are some defensive statistics from Graham's time in a defensive coordinator role.

2022 Offense

2022 Head Coach: Brian Daboll

Brian Daboll struggled early in his career as an offensive coordinator, calling plays for franchises that lacked talented players such as the Cleveland Browns (2009-2010), Miami Dolphins (2011), and the Kansas City Chiefs (2012). But he eventually figured it out during his time with the Buffalo Bills (2018-2021) and his offense performed so well that he earned the New York Giants head coaching job this offseason. Below are some statistics from his career as an offensive play-caller so we can get a better idea of how the New York Giants offense may look in 2022.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

2022 Offensive Coordinator: Mike Kafka

Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka's Takeaways & Expectations

Because head coach Brian Daboll is expected to call plays for the Giants and this will be Mike Kafka's first year as an offensive coordinator at the NFL level, this section will primarily talk about Brian Daboll's previous offenses.

Brian Daboll struggled early in his career as an offensive coordinator, calling plays for franchises that lacked talented players such as the Cleveland Browns (2009-2010), Miami Dolphins (2011), and the Kansas City Chiefs (2012). During that time, he put more emphasis on the run rather than the pass, with his offenses failing to average at least 30 passing attempts per game in any of his first four years in the league.

It's been a different story for Daboll in recent years as an offensive play-caller. Since 2018 when he joined the Bills as an offensive coordinator, Daboll's approach has evolved and resulted in an increase in the number of passing attempts each year he's been a coordinator - reaching 38.53 passing attempts per game last year. There is a good chance he dials back this usage now that he's in New York and working with Daniel Jones (who is a less proven quarterback than Josh Allen) and that the passing attempt averages are much closer to his career averages of 32.00 passing attempts per game.

But besides the passing usage, we also have to consider the number of rushing attempts Daboll's quarterbacks get per game since that has a big impact on fantasy value. Over the course of Brian Daboll's 129-game career as an offensive play-caller, his quarterback room has averaged 4.86 carries, 23.42 rushing yards, and 0.32 rushing touchdowns per game.

These career averages are above the NFL league averages for the past few years and suggest that Daboll's offense will give Daniel Jones plenty of opportunities to use his legs. Jones isn't the most appealing quarterback option in fantasy leagues, but he could be a decent streamer throughout the year as long as Daboll calls the plays.

Looking at the running back position, Brian Daboll's offensive system hasn't done a great job of producing strong fantasy performers in the past, as his entire running back room has averaged 22.39 carries, 94.12 rushing yards, and 0.47 rushing touchdowns over the course of his 129-game career.

It will be interesting to see if this usage and fantasy production on the ground changes now that he's got an incredibly talented running back in Saquon Barkley. But the most important thing with that will be figuring how much Brian Daboll decides to roll with Barkley as a bell-cow versus taking more of a running back by committee approach on the ground.

The last thing to look at with Brian Daboll's running back room is how he has historically utilized them in the passing game. Over the course of his 129-game career, Daboll's running backs have averaged just 3.88 receptions on 5.20 targets for 28.44 receiving yards and 0.12 receiving touchdowns per game through the air.

Daboll generally hasn't been the best play-caller for running backs over the course of his career, but he has at least shown that his offense can produce a top fantasy running back in the past with Jamaal Charles in 2012. Overall, Saquon Barkley will likely be in the low-end RB1 discussion for the 2022 season in this offense.

Jumping to Daboll's wide receiver room, he has a pretty mediocre career average (20.15 targets per game) in his wide receiver usage, but it is important to note that he has featured his wide receivers at a much higher rate than the average play-caller in each of the past two years.

In the past two years, Brian Daboll's offense has led to his wide receiver room seeing 26.69 targets per game in 2020 (2020 league average - 20.21) and 26.06 targets per game in 2021 (2021 league average - 19.75). For the 2022 season with the Giants, it's likely that we see this usage end up halfway between his past two seasons and his career averages with the Giants wide receiver room seeing between 21 and 23 targets per game. Based on this information, it might not be a bad idea to take a shot on one of the Giants' wide receivers (Kadarius Toney, Kenny Golladay, Wan'Dale Robinson, Sterling Shepard) late in fantasy drafts since there could be more value here than the consensus is anticipating.

Finally, Daboll's historical usage of tight ends is not very encouraging. In his eight-year career as an NFL offensive coordinator, his tight end room topped six targets per game in just one season - 2010 with the Cleveland Browns (7.19).

Looking at the 2022 Giants roster, it's hard to see Daboll move away from these past tendencies. Because of this, Ricky Seals-Jones and Jordan Akins will not be optimal draft targets and should be viewed as only streamers in fantasy football leagues.

Fantasy Relevant Players: Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor, Davis Webb, Saquon Barkley, Matt Breida, Gary Brightwell, Antonio Williams, Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton, Wan'Dale Robinson, Richie James, Collin Johnson, C.J. Board, Ricky Seals-Jones, and Jordan Akins

2022 Defense

2022 Defensive Coordinator: Don Martindale 

Don Martindale will be the New York Giants defensive coordinator in 2022 after previously serving as the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos (2010) and the Baltimore Ravens (2018-2021). Below are some statistics from his time as a defensive coordinator.

Other Notable Assistants

Special Teams Coordinator: Thomas McGaughey - Thomas McGaughey has been the New York Giants' special teams coordinator since 2018. He's been coaching since 1998 and has previously worked as a special teams coordinator for the New York Jets (2014), San Francisco 49ers (2015), and Carolina Panthers (2016-2017).

QB Coach: Shea Tierney - The New York Giants will have a new quarterbacks coach in 2022 as they go from Jerry Schuplinski to Shea Tierney. This will be Tierney's first opportunity as a quarterbacks coach, but it is important to note that he served as the Buffalo Bills' assistant quarterbacks coach from 2020 to 2021.

RB Coach: Deandre Smith - The Giants will also have a new running backs coach in 2022 as they go from Burton Burns to Deandre Smith. Smith has been a running backs coach for a long-time, but primarily at the college level. At the college level, he served as a running backs coach for Northern Illinois (2001-2004), Miami (OH) (2005-2007), New Mexico (2008, 2012), UNLV (2009), Illinois (2010-2011), Syracuse (2013-2015), Purdue (2016), North Carolina (2017), Utah State (2018), and Texas Tech (2019-2021).

WR Coach: Mike Groh - Tyke Tolbert is gone and Mike Groh will serve as the Giants' newest wide receivers coach. Groh has been coaching at the college and NFL levels since 2000 and has previously worked as a wide receivers coach at the NFL level for the Chicago Bears (2013-2015), Los Angeles Rams (2016), Philadelphia Eagles (2017), and Indianapolis Colts (2020-2021). He also served as the Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2019.

TE Coach: Andy Bischoff - Another coaching change for the New York Giants will be at tight ends coach as the team goes from Derek Dooley to Andy Bischoff. Bischoff has coached at the high school, college, CFL, and NFL levels since 1993, and has previously worked as a tight ends coach at the NFL level for the Chicago Bears (2013-2014) and the Houston Texans (2021).

OL Coach: Bobby Johnson - The New York Giants will have a new offensive line coach in 2022 as the team goes from Rob Sale to Bobby Johnson. Johnson has been coaching since 1995 and has previously worked as an offensive line coach at the NFL level for the Buffalo Bills (2019-2021). He also spent a lot of time at the NFL level coaching tight ends with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2012), Detroit Lions (2013-2014), and Oakland Raiders (2015-2017).

DL Coach: Andre Patterson - On the defensive side of the ball, the New York Giants will also have some coaching staff shakeups. For the 2022 season, the team will move on from Sean Spencer as defensive line coach and hire Andre Patterson to serve as the new coach. Patterson has previously worked as a defensive line coach at the NFL level for the New England Patriots (1997), Minnesota Vikings (1998-1999, 2014-2021), Dallas Cowboys (2000-2002), Cleveland Browns (2003-2004), and Denver Broncos (2005-2006). He also served as the Minnesota Vikings' co-defensive coordinator from 2020 to 2021.

ILB Coach: John Egorugwu - The Giants will have an inside linebackers coach and an outside linebackers coach in 2022 after they let go of last year's linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer. Serving as the inside linebackers coach is John Egorugwu. Egorugwu previously served as a linebackers coach at Vanderbilt.

OLB Coach: Drew Wilkins - The Giants will have an inside linebackers coach and an outside linebackers coach in 2022 after they let go of last year's linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer. Serving as the outside linebackers coach is Drew Wilkins. Wilkins previously spent the majority of his career with the Baltimore Ravens in a variety of roles (2010-2021), most notably as the team's outside linebackers coach from 2018 to 2021.

DB Coach: Jerome Henderson - Jerome Henderson has been the New York Giants defensive backs coach since 2020. He has previously served as a defensive backs coach for the New York Jets (2008), Cleveland Browns (2009-2011), and Dallas Cowboys (2012-2015) as well as the defensive passing game coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons (2016-2019). He also played cornerback at the NFL level for the New England Patriots (1991-1993, 1996), Buffalo Bills (1993-1994), Philadelphia Eagles (1995), and New York Jets (1997-1998).

Enjoy this series? Be sure to check out all of the other 'Coaching Matters' team previews!

AFC North: Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals

AFC South: Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts

AFC West: Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders

AFC East: Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Jets

NFC North: Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings

NFC South: Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West: San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, and Seattle Seahawks

NFC East: Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles

Follow Eli Grabanski on Twitter: @3li_handles

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