EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — A personable and quick-witted Brian Daboll plans to rebuild the New York Giants working with the players they have and building schemes to fit their skills.

Speaking at his introductory news conference Monday, the former Buffalo Bills’ offensive coordinator created some news, saying Pat Graham will return as the Giants’ defensive coordinator if he does not get a head coaching position with another team.

The 46-year-old Daboll spent 40 hours over the weekend, talking with candidates for his coaching staff, including some others members of Joe Judge’s staff.

Daboll would not put a timeline on turning things around for the Giants, who went 4-13 this past season, their fifth straight double-digit losing season. They have made the playoffs once (2016) since winning the Super Bowl in February 2012.

“All I know how to do is work, work with people, try to build a culture, unite a building, inspire players, coaches, support staff; listen, learn and then ultimately develop the people in our building,” Daboll said.

Daboll’s biggest job will be to turn around the Giants’ anemic offense and to get more out of quarterback Daniel Jones. The No. 6 overall pick in 2019 has had three consecutive seasons of change since joining the NFL. This will be No. 4 for Jones, who missed the final six games of the season with a neck injury.

Daboll refused to compare Jones with other quarterbacks, adding it’s his hope to provide him with some stability.

If anything came across at the news conference it was Daboll’s personality. He was relaxed, at ease with who he is. He frequently joked with reporters, asking one if he came in late when he knew he did; and another who had a distinct New York accent: “Are you from South Carolina?”

Daboll said he believes in five things: Being authentic, consistent, communicating clearly, building relationships and being a leader.

“I feel prepared,” he said. “Yeah. So I know there’ll be some obstacles and challenges, of course, that’s this league, you’ve got to be resilient in this league. Certainly here you’ve got to be resilient right here.”

Daboll, who also interviewed for the head coaching job with the Dolphins, said one of the things that drew him to the Giants’ job was the chance to work again with new general manager Joe Schoen. The two spent the past four seasons in Buffalo, with Schoen serving as assistant general manager.

Schoen said that Daboll’s personality wasn’t an act. What people saw is what they can expect.

“He can joke around and communicate with anybody on the team, whether it’s the 90th man or the best player on the team,” Schoen said. “He truly cares about the players and who they are as human beings and wants the best for them.”

Daboll poked fun at himself when asked if he had a tough side. In his first season with the Patriots, he was a graduate assistant running a scout team and some player whose name he could not recall, botched a play. He quickly went off on the guy, shouting a few colorful phrases.

In the middle of it, then-veteran linebacker Willie McGinest walked over to him and said: “Hey, little guy, relax!”

Daboll quipped his six children could discuss his tough side.

“I think you as a leader have to have tough conversations, truthful conversations and each situation is a little bit different,” he added.

Daboll is the fourth head coach hired by the Giants since 2016. Ben McAdoo got the job in ’16 and led New York to the playoffs. He was gone by December 2017, even before the end of a 3-13 season. Pat Shurmur lasted two years and Judge got the next two.

How long Daboll lasts remains to be seen.

Giants co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch have hired a new general manager and coach in the past three weeks. They have some tough salary cap decisions to make on players to create cap room and then free agency and the draft.

“There’s no rest,” Mara said. “And I’m not going to rest until we start winning games.”

49ERS: More than a month after injuring the UCL in his right thumb, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is preparing for offseason surgery.

Garoppolo initially injured his thumb in the 49ers’ Week 16 loss to the Tennessee Titans, but missed just one game before returning to his starting role for the remainder of the season and the 49ers’ playoff run, which fell one game short of the Super Bowl. According to NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport, Garoppolo will have reconstructive surgery to repair his UCL “as soon as it can be scheduled.”

UCSF Director of Sports Medicine Dr. Nirav Pandya tweeted the typical recovery from UCL surgery is “five-to-six weeks,” and performances statistics have shown players are not negatively impacted post-surgery.

“The likelihood is that Jimmy Garoppolo has played his last down with the San Francisco 49ers and this is the best-case scenario for everyone,” Rapoport said in a TV report.

After losing 20-17 to the Rams in Sunday’s NFC Championship game, it’s widely anticipated the 49ers will move on from Garoppolo and install Trey Lance as their starting quarterback entering the 2022 season. Several players, including Garoppolo, expressed uncertainty about his future with the franchise in the aftermath of the team’s season-ending defeat.

Rapoport added that some teams interested in acquiring Garoppolo may wait to see that the quarterback has fully recovered from surgery before pursuing a trade.

PRO BOWL: Kirk Cousins will be the Pro Bowl injury replacement for Aaron Rodgers for a third time.

The Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback was added to the NFC roster. The all-star game will be played Sunday in Las Vegas. Rodgers played much of the season for the Green Bay Packers with a broken toe.

Cousins was also picked as the fill-in for Rodgers after the 2019 season with Minnesota and after the 2016 season with Washington. Cousins has never made the original Pro Bowl roster.

The 33-year-old Cousins was one of only two players in the NFL this season with 30-plus touchdown passes and fewer than 10 interceptions. Rodgers was the other. Cousins posted a 103.1 passer rating, ranking fourth in the league behind Rodgers, Joe Burrow and Dak Prescott.

A pair of Tennessee Titans also were added as injury replacements. Defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons is replacing Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones, while left guard Rodger Saffold, a 12-year veteran, is filling in for Quenton Nelson of Indianapolis. This will be the first Pro Bowl appearance for both.

PACKERS: The Green Bay Packers promoted Adam Stenavich from offensive line coach to offensive coordinator as they fill the vacancy created when Nathaniel Hackett left to become Denver Broncos head coach.

Stenavich has coached the Packers’ offensive line in each of Matt LaFleur’s three seasons as head coach and helped that unit withstand numerous injuries. He added the title of running game coordinator this season.

Green Bay earned the NFC’s No. 1 overall seed each of the last two seasons. The Packers lost 13-10 to the San Francisco 49ers in a divisional playoff game this season after falling in the NFC championship game each of the two previous seasons.

Hackett had been Green Bay’s offensive coordinator the last three years before the Broncos hired him. The Packers also have lost quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Luke Getsy, who left to become the Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator.

FALCONS: The Atlanta Falcons have hired former Chicago Bears assistant Michael Pitre as running backs coach.

JAGUARS: The Jacksonville Jaguars are rebooting their coaching search. And they’re broadening the scope.

The Jaguars interviewed former Las Vegas Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia on Monday and lined up a second interview Tuesday with former Philadelphia coach Doug Pederson, according to a person familiar with the process. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team has kept details of its search private.

The 61-year-old Bisaccia, a longtime NFL special teams coordinator who also spent more than a decade in the college ranks, took over in Vegas after Jon Gruden resigned amid an email scandal in mid-October. The Raiders went 7-6 under Bisaccia, including a wild-card loss to Super Bowl-bound Cincinnati two weeks ago.

The 54-year-old Pederson first met with Jaguars owner Shad Khan and GM Trent Baalke on Dec. 30.

The Jaguars also want to interview Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell but will have to wait until after the Super Bowl to do it, according to another person with knowledge of the search. Under NFL rules, O’Connell can’t meet with Jacksonville until after the Super Bowl because the Jaguars didn’t have an initial interview with him during the final two weeks of the regular season or the first week of the postseason.

The 36-year-old O’Connell interviewed with Houston on Monday and has a second one scheduled with Minnesota later this week.

Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich remains a possibility in Jacksonville, although he’s starting to seem like a long shot. He had a second interview with Khan, son Tony Khan and Baalke in person last Tuesday in Tampa, but discussions cooled the following day, presumably over Baalke’s status with the team.

Leftwich would prefer not to work with Baalke, according to another person with knowledge of the situation. Baalke has a less-than-stellar reputation around the league, evidenced by his last five seasons ending with a coaching change.

Baalke’s resume includes failed tenures with Urban Meyer (2021), Doug Marrone (2020), Chip Kelly (2016), Jim Tomsula (2015) and Jim Harbaugh (2014).

The 57-year-old Baalke remained in place after Khan fired Urban Meyer in mid-December, a move that irked fans enough for them to organize a “clown out” protest for the season finale against Indianapolis. A few hundred fans showed up dressed in colorful wigs, oversized bowties and red noses.

But Khan appears committed to keeping Baalke even though the GM’s presence proved to be a stumbling block in a coaching search that has stretched nearly 50 days.

Jacksonville’s initial list of candidates included Pederson and fellow former NFL coaches Jim Caldwell and Bill O’Brien as well as NFL coordinators Leftwich, Nathaniel Hackett, Matt Eberflus, Todd Bowles, Kellen Moore and Jaguars offensive coordinator/interim head coach Darrell Bevell. Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn declined an interview request.

It’s unclear how many of those candidates would work with Baalke. Leftwich and Eberflus were the only ones who got second interviews. Eberflus ended up taking the Chicago job, and Hackett landed in Denver before Jacksonville could get a second interview.

An O’Connell-Baalke pairing could work. They worked together in San Francisco in 2016.

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