Big Blue View
The three people working the closest with New York Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka might be Giants coordinators Tim Kelly (offense), Shane Bowen (defense), and Michael Ghobrial (special teams). On Thursday, each praised Kafka’s work since taking over from Brian Daboll.
Ghobrial clearly made the strongest pitch for Kafka.
“Kaf, number one, is a tremendous human being. I really believe his intentions with everything he does, he puts his whole heart into it and the players feel that. He’s very even-keeled and he’s a great leader of men. He has a definitive plan on how he wants things to look like, but he likes to integrate everybody’s ideas into that and ultimately his decisions, those are things that we try and support as well,” Ghobrial said. “I think Kaf has done an outstanding job in this capacity and obviously, I truly believe that he has the ability to be a head coach in this league for a long time.
“You’re hearing that in the team meetings, just his ability to convey a message to the team. These guys play hard for him. He’s very organized. It’s everything that you want in a head coach and that’s obviously why he’s had success as an offensive coordinator and why he’s going to have success as a head coach.”
Bowen said Kafka’s changes have been “good for the guys.”
“I think the attention to detail, how he’s adjusted some meetings, I think has been good for us, good for the guys, but he relates with all the players,” Bowen said. “Offense, defense, he wants to be involved, he wants to know what’s going on, so he can have those conversations with our guys as well and be able to hold them accountable to certain things. So, I think he’s doing a really good job, and hopefully we can get some wins here.”
Kelly said he thought Kafka did a “great job” handling his first week.
“Obviously, not the easiest of circumstances to, you know, to kind of take over in that situation. But he did a great job making sure that the team was ready to play, and I felt like our guys responded well to him. He went out, and we played hard. We fell short. Ultimately, obviously, we want to win that game, but I felt like everybody was flying around for the entirety of the game, and, again, I think that’s just a testament to Mike.”
That is the message Bowen said he is getting from Kafka.
“Don’t hold anything back. Put these guys in positions to make plays,” Bowen said. “Understand, obviously, this week’s going to be played aggressively by their side of the football as well, just with what they’ve done on fourth downs. Understanding that, and something we look at every week, just how we’re able to attack. Like finding ways to attack, the situations we feel comfortable attacking, the personnel we’re playing with, playing against, all that comes into play....
