With the NFL Scouting Combine wrapped up and the new league year set to begin next week, the New York Giants have officially fleshed out the openings on their coaching staff.
Per a team release, the Giants have hired Jeff Nixon as the new running backs coach, Stephen Thomas as an assistant special teams coach, and Chris Smith as an assistant offensive line coach.
Big Blue has also promoted Michael Treier from assistant defensive backs coach to safeties coach, Christian Jones from offensive assistant to assistant quarterbacks coach, and Angela Baker from offensive quality control coach to offensive assistant.
And, finally, the team has named head coach Brian Daboll’s son, Christian Daboll, as an offensive assistant after he spent the last three years as a student coach at Penn State.
Of the newcomers, Nixon was the Carolina Panthers’ assistant head coach last season. A 13-year NFL assistant, he was the Dolphins’ running backs coach when Daboll was Miami’s OC in 2011 – a position he held from 2011-15 – and he has also spent time in Philly and San Francisco. He was also on Matt Rhule’s staff at Baylor and followed him to Carolina as a senior offensive assistant/running backs coach in 2020 – also picking up interim OC duties at the end of 2021 when Joe Brady was fired that December.
Smith comes directly from the college ranks, having spent the last six seasons at Holy Cross. He was the Crusaders’ offensive coordinator last year, leading them to an average of 37.4 points per game and the Division I-FBS quarterfinals, and prior to that he was an offensive line coach, run game coordinator, and recruiting coordinator for Holy Cross. His other collegiate experience includes stops at the University of New Haven, Northern Colorado, and the University of Buffalo.
The two replace DeAndre Smith and Tony Sparano Jr., who left Big Blue to join Shane Steichen’s staff in Indianapolis as RB coach and offensive line coach, respectively.
Thomas spent the previous four seasons as a defensive quality control coach with Detroit, and also held the same title in Philly in 2015. Around that, he spent six seasons with Princeton as an inside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator, and also worked at Southern Miss, Delaware, and SUNY Cortland as well. He joins Anthony Blevins, who has been a special teams assistant for the last four seasons, in the role.
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