It appears two Brians are top contenders for Giants' coaching job

The Giants’ next head coach seems to be coming down to a Battle of the Brians.

Brian Daboll, the offensive coordinator of the Bills and co-worker of new general manager Joe Schoen in Buffalo for the past five seasons, interviewed for the job on Tuesday. Brian Flores, the Brooklyn native and former head coach of the Dolphins, interviewed on Thursday.

There is a good chance one of them will be offered the job before this weekend is over — perhaps, as Schoen noted after his introductory news conference on Wednesday, as soon as Saturday morning.

It might even be sooner than that. With Flores’ in-person interview completed, the Giants are in compliance with the NFL’s Rooney Rule to encourage the consideration of minority candidates and are free to hire anyone.

Well, not anyone. One of their other strong candidates, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who interviewed on Monday, pulled his name from consideration on Thursday as the jobs with the Broncos and Bears were on their way to being filled. It could be that Quinn coveted those two positions the most, or it could be that he realized he was the third car in a two-car race between Daboll and Flores to coach his hometown team.

The Giants also are scheduled to have an in-person interview with Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier on Friday, the last of their anticipated meetings. If Schoen and ownership do not come to a consensus after that, they could expand the field, but most believe that the next head coach of the Giants already has come through their building now that Daboll and Flores have completed their interviews.

While the Giants may be eager to name their head coach, they don’t appear to have much competition that would prompt a rushed decision.

Daboll is a finalist for the job with the Dolphins, but they reportedly have determined that they will not hold second interviews for candidates until next week. Flores already has interviewed for the jobs in Chicago (filled) and Houston. The latter search also has included Hines Ward and Josh McCown as serious yet unorthodox candidates.

Daboll remains the favorite for the Giants, given his relationship with Schoen and Schoen’s insistence that he and the new head coach share a common philosophy (he used the word "lockstep" several times in his news conferences and interviews).

Flores has head-coaching experience, which Daboll does not, but Flores also has the baggage that can come with that. He was fired by the Dolphins despite two consecutive winning seasons for reportedly not seeing eye-to-eye with general manager Chris Grier (in other words, they were not in, ahem, lockstep).

Grier and Schoen worked together in Miami before Schoen went to Buffalo. Flores also churned through a number of coordinators in his three years with the Dolphins, which could be troublesome for a Giants team that is looking for stability, particularly when it comes to the development of quarterback Daniel Jones.

"That’s certainly one of the things that we’re going to ask Brian," co-owner John Mara said on Wednesday. "We’re going to spend some time on that when he comes in."

Depending on how he answered, he may be one step closer to being head coach of the Giants . . . or may have allowed the other Brian to jump ahead of him.

Schoen signs Bills RB. Schoen’s first personnel move was signing a running back from . . . the Bills! Antonio Williams, who has spent most of the past two seasons on Buffalo’s practice squad, signed a reserve futures contract with the Giants on Thursday, opening what could become a pipeline of talent to flow from the Bills to the Giants’ roster.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.