How Mike Kafka’s Experience with Patrick Mahomes Has Shaped NY GIants QB Jaxson Dart's Development

This weekend, New York Giants assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will get his first chance at seeing Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes play in person since Kafka left Andy Reid’s coaching staff to join the Giants in 2022.

Kafka, you see, was instrumental in the development of Mahomes, serving as the superstar signal caller’s position coach during the early days of Mahomes’s career.

And in having done so, Kafka has built up a knowledge database of what to do and what not to do as he now contributes his insights into the development of the Giants’ own prized rookie signal caller, Jaxson Dart.

"I think the biggest thing that I learned from that was just building a structure for really any young player, whether it's a quarterback or any position," Kafka told reporters on Thursday.

"It's just building a structure, how you prepare, and what does that timeline look like on a day-to-day basis? What does it look like every week?

"Then how can you take experiences from maybe some of the vets or some of the older guys on the team and say, ‘Oh, I can maybe add that to my routine, my regimen, and build that.'"

Both Kafka and Mahomes arrived in Kansas City in 2017, the former, a one-time NFL quarterback himself, showing up to work his first NFL coaching job as an offensive quality control coach.

Kafka was named the quarterback's coach the following year and added "passing game coordinator" to his resume in 2020 before assuming his current post with the Giants two years later.

Mahomes' ongoing endeavors give the Giants faith that they can trust Kafka with the development of Dart, widely assumed to be the team’s quarterback of the future.

For the time being, however, Dart continues to stand behind Russell Wilson on the depth chart, not unlike the way Mahomes spent a year as a de facto intern under Alex Smith shortly after the Chiefs drafted him 10th overall in 2017.

Unlike Mahomes, who stayed glued to the bench until the final game of his rookie season when he got the first of his many career starts, Dart has already received some snaps in just his second NFL game.

The Giants, who have a package of red-zone plays for their prized rookie, inserted him for three snaps in last weekend's 40-37 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Kafka nonetheless appreciated the way Dart conducted himself in the New York huddle, claiming that the rookie "did everything he needed to do in terms of operation and execution on the field."

While lacking a commitment to such a strategy moving forward—he wants to see what former Giants defensive hero Steve Spagnuolo throws at his unit, particularly in his aggressiveness—Kafka hinted that the Dart cameos will continue as he works his way up to a premiere entry.

"I think if it's positive, I think it definitely helps, and if it's negative, it's just how you approach it," Kafka said.

"Jaxson has always done a really good job of whether it was positive or negative, whatever that result was, of learning from it and growing from it. So, I think he can take those few experiences and then just build off them."

"I think if they, whether they come this week, next week, 10 weeks from now, whenever those opportunities show up, [he can] just [take] advantage of them, be prepared and ready to go."

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