The big story from the other sideline at Huntington Bank Field on Sunday won’t be necessarily that it will be the New York Football Giants providing the opposition for the Browns.

Rather, it will be that a familiar face to Browns fans — and a really good guy — is in a heap of trouble.

Giants head coach Brian Daboll, whose coaching career got its biggest break in terms of a jumpstart when he served as Browns offensive coordinator in 2009 and ‘10 under Eric Mangini, is hanging onto his job by a thread — and a frayed, thin one at that. He stared down a reporter who asked him about his job security the other day, but no one knows better than Daboll that it’s a legitimate issue. He is on the hottest of hot seats.

Daboll was an immediate hit — in a major way — in 2022, his first year on the job, as he righted the struggling franchise and guided it to a 9-7-1 regular-season finish, earning the Giants a spot in the NFC playoffs — and then they even won a postseason game — and earning him the NFL Coach of the Year award. He was the talk of not just the New York football world, but also of the league. He was indeed on top of the world.

But it’s been a disaster since then. The Giants went 6-11 last season and come into Cleveland with an 0-2 mark. Their offense is a mess — it can’t score points — and that’s because the quarterback situation is a mess.

None of this is lost on one of the toughest and most unforgiving fanbases in the NFL and arguably the toughest media corps.

A win over the Browns would do wonders in terms of Daboll staving off the dogs and buying himself some more time.

If it doesn’t work out for Daboll and he eventually gets fired, then keep an eye on former Browns head coach Bill Belichick. He wants to work again and it’s believed that he would like to do so with the Giants. He has loved the organization since being with it in the 1980s as defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells and winning two Super Bowls, the latter of which, following the 1990 season, landed him the job in Cleveland.

Steve King

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