Giants Legend Makes Telling Observation About Brian Daboll

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There's every reason to believe that the 2025 season is a "make-or-break" campaign for New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll.

After a woefully disappointing 2024 season, and selecting Jaxson Dart with the No. 25 overall pick in April's NFL Draft, the pressure is on Daboll to prove to owner John Mara that the Giants are making major progress, in order to ensure he's back on the sideline in East Rutherford come September, 2026.

According to at least one Giants legend, this is the first time in his tenure that Daboll's fingerprints are all over New York's roster.

"I think we have a good team. I think for the first time, [head coach Brian Daboll] has a team in a draft that you could feel he wrapped his arms around," Cruz said, per the New York Post. "These are his guys, and we'll see how he develops them and get them ready to play."

There's a compelling case to be made, that in addition to Dart as Daboll and the Giants' quarterback-in-waiting, Russell Wilson allows the 50-year-old coach to call the offense he's envisioned New York deploying, thanks to the 36-year-old's propensity for pushing the ball deep in the vertical passing game, which could spark the offense finally taking shape how Daboll envisioned.

The NFC East is one of the most competitive divisions in the NFL, but if the Giants' young core on offense, and swarming front-seven on defense quickly hit their stride, New York could make a charge at a return to the postseason for the first time since Daboll's first season as head coach.

Russell Wilson seems entrenched as the Giants' Week 1 starting quarterback, and might hold the key to Daboll getting the chance to call the offense he's always envisioned, and Dart is New York's quarterback-in-waiting, which makes Jameis winston altogether a luxury piece and perhaps the odd-man-out.

Winston, signed just before the Giants agreed to terms with Wilson is a quality backup whose role might be redundant with the former Super Bowl champion also sharing a quarterbacks room with Dart.

"There's Russell [Wilson] over there," Jordan said, during a recent appearance on the Up and Adams Show with Kay Adams. "They [Giants] got Jaxson Dart. My guy Jameis... come on down. It makes a lot of sense... Jameis as the veteran quarterback - come on over."

Winston was stellar during his four seasons with the Saints, passing for 2,367 yards with 20 touchdowns to 11 interceptions while adding two more rushing scores and playing some of the best football of his career from 2020 through the 2023 season.

However, it remains to be seen if new Saints head coach Kellen Moore views him as a scheme fit or if New Orleans might have sights set on a different quarterback to fill the void, with one eye trained on the 2026 NFL Draft hoping to get a long-term solution in place at the most important positing in sports.

Regardless, the speculation linking Winston to New Orleans just became a whole lot more compelling thanks to Jordan's endorsement.

However, an underrated source of optimism that the Giants' offense can make major strides this season is the explosive first impression Tracy made as a rookie.

Last fall, Tracy burst onto the scene, rushing for 839 yards and five touchdowns, after replacing Barkley, who signed a free agent mega-deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, last March.

As his second season approaches, Tracy has sights set on cementing his place in Giants franchise lore.

"I think consistency is the best thing that shows up in the NFL. When you look at all of the great running backs, they're very consistent year after year after year. So that's what I want to be," Tracy told reporters Thursday. "I want to be one of the great New York Giants running backs that's come through here, but it starts with consistency, and that's going to start at practice every day."

Tracy will be joined in the Giants' backfield in 2025 by incoming rookie Cam Skattebo, who could carve out a prominent role in the offense, immediately. New Y0rk could aim to replicate the success teams like the Detroit Lions have had in recent years deploying two dynamic running backs, out of the backfield.

But, just as Tracy didn't back down from comparisons to his predecessor last year, he's not intimidated by the competition from Skattebo this year.

"First of all, it starts on the football field. Every time I'm holding the ball, or I get the ball, whatever it is, making sure I'm carrying it the right way," Tracy said was a big key to success. "And then I also bought, I don't know if y'all know what it is, but it's a little grip strengthener off Amazon that I use every night. It just helps me.

"Also, it just makes sure that I'm being fundamentally sound when I'm holding the ball as well. So again, just take your coaching and the meeting room to the field."