Tag: Brian DaBoll

The only coordinator the team retained after last year’s frustrating 6-11 season, New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka met with the media on Monday.

“I’m lucky and happy to be here. Looking forward to getting after it this offseason,” he said.

Kafka is not only coming back to run the team’s offense, he’s been promoted to assistant head coach, perhaps a move to keep him in-house after he once again went through the NFL coaching carousel the past winter.

“It’s certainly an honor to have that title. I don’t take it lightly,” Kafka told reporters on the first day of the Giants’ offseason workouts.

“Some of the responsibilities I’ve done with Dabs (head coach Brian Daboll) and going through the offseason, No. 1, kind of being a part a little bit more of the interview process. We’ve hired some new coaches, some new staff around the building.

“So being a part of that, how the inner workings of those decisions happen … and then sitting in on building out this offseason. So sitting in on the planning, listening to our health department work through our injured guys and their progress and how they are going to build that into our offseason program. That’s been really cool to be a part of really the backbone on how we’re going to do this thing.”

Kafka was asked the question that neither he nor Daboll has answered directly as of yet. Who will call the offensive plays this year?

“Every year is different. You got to go through the evaluation process, and this year is no different,” he said. “It’s day one of phase one, so there is a long time to go. But I’m excited and I’m excited in my role and doing whatever we can do to get better each day.”

So, the situation is still undecided, but Kafka reiterated there is no bad blood.

“I love working with Dabs,” he said.

The Giants have added some new coaches under Kafka this offseason, most notably offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo. Kafka sat in the offensive line room on Monday and came away impressed and excited.

“Just energy. Just felt it,” Kafka said. “Guys asking great questions, creating the dialogue we’re looking for and coming together as a group. Five guys playing as one. … I’m excited for that room.

“We have a great influx of some new players and veteran players, and so we’re going to take the veteran guys we have, the young guys we have, and continue to develop them and just continue to build in that room.

“Carm comes from a similar system, so there is some terminology that carries over, so we were able to get through this process a little bit quicker than if it was a coach that didn’t have as much of a background as he has.

“Carm’s doing a hell of a job, and they’re ready to roll.”

The Giants will be returning left tackle Andrew Thomas and center John Michael Schmitz but will be mixing and matching at the guard positions and will once again give right tackle Evan Neal a shot to start.

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When the New York Giants promoted Mike Kafka to assistant head coach earlier this offseason, it was not necessarily a measure of goodwill.

There had been an ugly fallout and subsequent divorce with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, which came on the heels of special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey being fired. At the same time, rumors were swirling about head coach Brian Daboll’s explosive personality.

From a public relations standpoint, it would have created poor optics to have Kafka depart East Rutherford and Daboll to lose all three of his coordinators.

So with interest in Kafka rising — particularly from the Seattle Seahawks — the Giants opted to promote the offensive coordinator to prevent him from from taking a lateral position, which is something Kafka was open to.

One of Kafka’s primary concerns was that Daboll would strip him of play-calling duties, which happened several times throughout the 2023 regular season.

As it turns out, Kafka was justified in those concerns.

While speaking with reporters at the Annual League Meeting, Daboll confirmed that he is considering taking play-calling duties away from Kafka.

“It’s something I’m looking into,” Daboll said, via NFL Network. “I think there’s 20 head coaches at this point in time that call plays in the league (either offensively or defensively). . . There might be a little bit more. I’ve been doing a bunch of research, but no decision has been made. I’m still going through that process, thinking about what we need to do.”

Before being hired as the Giants’ head coach, Daboll handled the play-calling duties for the Buffalo Bills. That experience, he says, factors into the pending decision.

“Certainly,” he said. “I did it for a long time. There’s a lot of things that go into it. Part of the evaluation that I talked about, there are some other things that I’m looking into. I take my time and do what I think is best for the team.”

If Daboll does take on the added responsibility of calling the plays — something that appears certain at this point — how will it impact his remaining duties as head coach?

“Still working through that process,” Daboll said. “There’s quite a bit of people nowadays that do that. So, again, it’s something that I’ll look into. Whatever I feel is best for the football team, that’s the way we go.”

As it relates to Kafka, he can enjoy a nice new title for his resume and less responsibility on the job. This will undoubtedly be his final season in East Rutherford.

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