Brian Daboll will remain in place as the Giants’ head coach in 2025, and both of his top lieutenants could stay with him. Despite rumors that offensive coordinator Mike Kafka could be dismissed if team ownership elected to retain Daboll, that has not happened yet. So unless Kafka lands a head coaching gig, it looks like he is on track to see out his thru-2025 contract with Big Blue.
Likewise, Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reports that defensive coordinator Shane Bowen appears likely to stay on Daboll’s staff for the 2025 campaign (video link). Bowen’s job security was called into question by the harsh evaluation that owner John Mara recently gave of his club’s defense, and the fact that the Patriots just hired Mike Vrabel as their head coach immediately created some speculation that Bowen could join him in Foxborough.
Bowen, 38, worked with Vrabel on the Texans’ defensive staff over the 2016-17 seasons, and when Vrabel took the Titans’ head coaching job in 2018, Bowen followed him to Tennessee to become the club’s linebackers coach. Bowen was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2021, a role he held for three seasons.
His first year on the job was his best, as the Titans finished 12th in total defense and sixth in scoring defense in 2021 en route to an AFC South title and an appearance in the divisional round of the playoffs. Thanks in part to injury troubles, Bowen’s unit was unable to replicate that performance over the next two seasons, and after Vrabel was dismissed last January, Bowen took an interview with the Giants (who had just parted ways with former DC Wink Martindale in the wake of highly-publicized friction between Martindale and Daboll).
Bowen’s first Giants defense finished in the bottom-10 in terms of yardage and just outside the bottom-10 in terms of points allowed, so he did not necessarily make a compelling case to stick around (to say nothing of the fact that he was not the Giants’ top choice to serve as Martindale’s successor in the first place). However, like the rest of New York’s top staffers, it appears he will be given a mulligan and will return in 2025, though Garafolo does leave open the possibility that the Giants could allow Bowen to leave the club and reunite with Vrabel if he wants to.
Mike Garafolo thinks they’ll retain him so now it’s set in stone? Aside from that jump being asinine, why would NYG fire Bowen if they know Vrabel would want to have Bowen on his staff. If Bowen wants to leave NYG will let him go, firing him doesn’t accomplish anything
Well if Vrabel wants to hire Bowen with the Patriots, Giants can try for Antonio Pierce for DC.
Also if Vrabel wants Bowen, NYG can ask for a draft pick back
That would be nice. They could use all the picks they can get.