Big Blue View
New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll finally admitted on Thursday what has been obvious since OTAs began in the spring — offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will resume play-calling duties this season.
Daboll confirmed as much during a brief session with media. Kafka, in his fourth season as the team’s offensive coordinator, was the play-caller during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Daboll assumed that responsibility last season after the Giants went 6-11 in 2023 and finished 30th in the NFL in points scored.
It didn’t help.
The Giants went 3-14 last season and were 31st in the league in points scored.
Kafka has been calling the offensive plays since the spring. Daboll has spent considerable time with rookie Jaxson Dart, and has used his freedom from play-calling to also spend more time with all of the position groups.
Kafka tried not to make much of the change when he spoke to media on Thursday.
“I haven’t really had a whole bunch of time to think about that,” Kafka said. “I’ve just been thinking about the players, thinking about the guys and how we can make them great, thinking about our coaches and the coaching staff and how I can help them and be a servant to them, how we can make this organization better and how I can make our offense better. That’s really been my focus. Then, you know, obviously all hands on deck for Washington this week.”
Kafka, 38, has had interviews for head-coaching vacancies each offseason since becoming Giants’ offensive coordinator in 2022.
“Mike’s done a great job this preseason,” Daboll said on Wednesday. “He’s done a good job with the staff. Got a lot of confidence in Mike and the offensive staff. Up to this point, relative to all the preseason games and the meetings we’ve had, I’ve been very pleased with the offensive staff.”
In 2022 and 2023, Kafka called plays from the press box high above the field. He called plays from the sideline in preseason, and will continue doing so during the regular season.
“The difference is it’s definitely quieter up there [in the press box], and you can see the field a lot, like the width of it. You see everybody,” Kafka said. “When you are down on the field, you trust the eyes upstairs to make sure you say, Hey, check out the back side corner on this play, check out what the safety is doing. You can verify via the pictures and stuff like that, but you know, it’s just probably more dialogue upstairs saying, Hey, check this out, my eyes are over here, your eyes are over there. Just the communication with the staff is probably a little bit quicker, because they’re working to do their job. They have their substitutions. They have their players, their guys. Who is on the field? Who is off the field? That needs to happen a little bit quicker. But there is a certain element of having the guys right there next to...
