NFC East news: Brian Daboll challenges in New York, Eagles sign pending free agent TE

NFC East news: Brian Daboll challenges in New York, Eagles sign pending free agent TE

2024 will be defining season for Giants’ Brian Daboll, coaching staff – Dan Benton, USA Today

Just two years after a Coach of the Year nod, Daboll seems to be on the hot seat.

Brian Daboll burst onto the scene in 2022, taking East Rutherford by storm as the popular, new, and shiny New York Giants head coach.

Both Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen were regularly seen out and about, often at New York Rangers games where they were greeted with thunderous applause.

The legend continued to grow throughout Daboll’s first season as the Giants overperformed, punching their first playoff ticket since 2016 and winning their first postseason game since Super Bowl XLVI.

For his efforts, Daboll was named the 2022 AP NFL Head Coach of the Year.

Since then, things have gone downhill. The Giants fell off in dramatic fashion this past season, losing 11 injury-riddled games while rumors of discontent grew louder with each passing day.

Gone were Schoen and Daboll from the public spotlight, instead hunkering down while trying to weather storms both on and off the field.

Then came the start of the offseason. Daboll fired special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and a slew of assistant coaches, setting off a chain reaction that led to defensive coordinator Wink Martindale “parting ways” with the team.

There were also a growing number of reports that suggested offensive coordinator Mike Kafka wanted to leave due to a souring relationship with Daboll. In an effort to prevent that, the Giants blocked Kafka from interviewing for a lateral job and then gave him the assistant head coach title to stop him from being poached.

It was a decision built entirely on optics. With support beginning to wane, Daboll did what he felt necessary to maintain some level of perceived consistency and stability.

Eagles bringing back TE before he hits free agency – Dave Zangaro, NBC Sports Philadelphia

As free agency looms, Philadelphia secured their backup tight end for another season.

The Eagles have signed tight end Albert Okwuegbunam to a one-year deal that could keep him in Philadelphia through the 2024 season.

Okwuegbunam, 25, was set to become an unrestricted free agent next month.

It seems a bit strange that the Eagles couldn’t wait to bring back Okwuegbunam, who didn’t play a role for them in 2023. The Eagles pulled off a trade with the Broncos at roster cutdown before the 2023 season to acquire Okwuegbunam and then never found a role for him.

The Eagles shipped a 2025 sixth-round pick to get Okwuegbunam and a 2025 seventh-rounder on Aug. 29.

In his first season with the Eagles, Okwuegbunam (6-5, 258) played a grand total of 57 offensive snaps and didn’t even get much playing time when Dallas Goedert was out with injury. Okwuegbunam was buried on the depth chart behind Goedert, Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra.

Going into 2024, the Eagles still have Goedert and Calcaterra under contract but Stoll is a restricted free agent. Stoll, who went undrafted out of Nebraska in 2021, has now played three NFL seasons and has been the Eagles’ TE2 in each of the last two seasons.

Signing Okwuegbunam in February is certainly not a guarantee that he’ll be on the roster in 2024 but he’ll at least come to training camp with a chance to earn a spot.

Commanders Coach Jason Simmons Bringing ‘Competitive Stamina’ – David Harrison, Sports Illustrated

The new assistant coach in Washington plans to prepare his players for the long season.

ASHBURN, Va. — Believe it or not, the NFL season is long for every team, not just the four win variety like the Washington Commanders were in 2023.

Even a Super Bowl winning franchise feels the strain of competition, the fatigue of competing at the height of athletic ability for up to five months, and ultimately the pain of losing like the Commanders have every year since January of 1992.

That’s the thing we often lose sight of, that 31 NFL teams end the season on a down note. Only one gets to end the year a winner, and it’s been 32 years since Washington was that team.

With a new coaching staff in place there is hope this organization may end that run, and it’s going to take stamina to win the marathon, because this business sure isn’t a sprint to the finish.

“Competitive stamina,” Commanders defensive pass game coordinator Jason Simmons calls it. “That’s what I think I bring to the table. I think the guys can count on me to coach them hard, to be detailed, and to have a continued focus on whatever (coach Dan Quinn’s) message is.”

That message so far is to construct a team that is both explosive and physical, two things that sound similar but can at times be total opposites while crafting the same result: winning football.

“What Joe Whitt is trying to bring to the table is a relentless play style (with) guys that hunt the football and attack the football,” Simmons said. “That’s what we’re looking to breed into this team first.

“That’s a fun style of football,” he continued. “Guys enjoy playing that style of football. It’s infectious. And it’s just fun to go out and play in and be able to go out and compete.”