The Las Vegas Raiders have the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, which means they're likely to pick Indiana's Fernando Mendoza, which means they'll want to hire a head coach that can foster the young quarterback when he gets to the NFL. Is Brian Daboll their answer?
According to Adam Schefter, Daboill interviewed for the job on Saturday. On the surface, he's a good option for the Raiders. He's the guy who developed Josh Allen. Doesn't that mean Mendoza would be safe in his hands? It's not actually that clear-cut...because after four years, Daboll can't keep liveing on his stint as the Bills OC, right?
How responsible was Daboll for developing Josh Allen?
If the idea is to pair up Mendoza with a proven developer of quarterbacks, I'm not sure Daboll is actually owed that title. I don't want to completely disregard the work he did with Allen in Buffalo. He clearly found a way to orient the offense to his strengths. They produced great offenses together.
But it wasn't just Daboll. Allen had been working with private QB coach Jordan Palmer. He had been a mess in 2018 and 2019. During the 2020 offseason, he had his throwing motion scanned and worked with Palmer to adjust his technique. That was when he took the big leap, improving his PFF passing grade from 61.4 to 90.3 overnight.
From there, Daboll certainly empowered Allen to become an All-Pro. But Allen continued to perform at a high level even after his OC left. Meanwhile, Daboll's offenses in New York weren't much to write home about.
Daboll's post-Allen track record isn't great
Daboll QBs post-Allen | QBR | PFF Passing |
|---|---|---|
2022: Daniel Jones | 62.9 | 69.5 |
2023: Daniel Jones | 37.1 | 54.4 |
2023: Tyrod Taylor | 48.6 | 73.4 |
2023: Tommy DeVito | 24.3 | 64.4 |
2024: Daniel Jones | 44.4 | 67.5 |
2024: Drew Lock | 43.0 | 48.2 |
2025: Russell Wilson | 25.7 | 63.5 |
2025: Jaxson Dart | 57.6 | 64.8 |
The Giants' problems during the Daboll era went far beyond the head coach. We're about to find out if someone as esteemed as John Harbaugh can make it work in New York — and I'm not sure he can. Still, Daboll was hired because of what he could do with a young quarterback and the results weren't fruitful.
Daniel Jones wasn't a particularly good passer before Daboll arrive and he didn't get any better with a new offense-minded head coach. When Russell Wilson arrived, the results weren't any better. And Jaxson Dart showed promise, but there wasn't much there to suggest Daboll was doing anything in particular to develop him. Just two of eight quarterbacks who saw at least 100 snaps in a season were above average in QBR...and barely just.
This is the part that's particularly relevant to the Raiders: Regardless of what percentage of blame he bears for the Giants woes, Daboll was not able to elevate a quarterback beyond other structural flaws in his roster. The Giants hired him to develop their quarterback and he couldn't do it.
Are the Raiders really going to ask Daboll to do the same and expect different results? He's not their worst option, but a retread who didn't work at a disaster of an organization it's likely to succeed with an organization that is itself unstable.