How Things Will Change for Giants Under IHC Mike Kafka

Times are changing for the New York Giants, who on Wednesday officially kicked off the Mike Kafka trial period with their first practice, a walkthrough.

Kafka, named the interim head coach following the dismissal of Brian Daboll on Monday, addressed approximately 50 members of the media before hitting the field for his first practice in his new role.

“This is a league of incredibly difficult situations,” Kafka said in thanking Daboll for allowing him to be the team’s offensive coordinator.

“In terms of where we're at right now, I'm excited to lead this group. You know, focusing each day, taking this one step at a time with the players and the coaches and getting organized.

“I'm excited and looking forward to the challenge.”

Along with Kafka getting a seven-game audition to prove his worthiness as an NFL head coach, some things are changing, and others are notably remaining the same.

Here’s a rundown.

Changing: New Offensive Coordinator

Kafka announced that tight ends coach Tim Kelly is the team’s new offensive coordinator.

“Really smart coach,” Kafka said, adding, “He'll help us tie in the run game. The pass game, he does a great job with a lot of good experiences to fall back on.”

Former head coach Brian Daboll hired Kelly to be the team’s tight ends coach before the 2024 season. Before that, he had been the Titans' offensive coordinator in 2023, a position added to his duties as passing game coordinator.

Kelly, who has been an NFL assistant coach since 2014 when he was hired as offensive quality control coach for the Texans, worked his way up to offensive coordinator with Houston in 2020, a role he held until the 2021 season.

After his stint in Houston, he joined the Titans coaching staff in 2022, first as the passing game coordinator before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2023.

Same: Offensive Play Caller

Kafka will remain the team’s play caller on offense in addition to having a fuller plate in managing the game-day decisions.

“We have a great team upstairs in the box with Ty (Siam) and Cade (Knox) doing a great job of communicating that,” Kafka said, adding that they would continue to discuss how they would manage different decisions that need to be made.

“Just like we talked through it throughout the rest of the week, just going through our plan for how we're gonna manage the game,” he said.

“Now that I'm the decision maker, that will be just kind of ramped up a little bit more. We'll have to, you know, spend a little bit more time on it. But that's really all it is —the communication aspect, talking through how we want to handle this game. “

Same: Shane Bowen Remains in Role

Embattled defensive coordinator Shane Bowen will remain in his role despite four fourth-quarter collapses this season.

“We've met several times over the past couple of days getting on the same page, the communication, talking about some, just the minor little tweaks that we would do throughout the week to make it more efficient and to, you know, to clean up some communication stuff,” Kafka said of the defense and Bowen.

“That's probably the biggest thing, is me getting on the same page with them. You know, I'm not up until this point, haven't been privileged to those conversations. So, you know, getting caught up to speed and, and communicating what I, you know, what I like and what I like to see and, and then them going and doing it.”

Changing: Practice Tweaks

Kafka indicated that the practices will be tweaked moving forward.

“We're gonna have a plan and have an intent on what we want to emphasize that day, whether it's, you know, first and second down, whether it's at the end of the game, whether it's the pressure packages or, anything that we want to emphasize that week,” he said

“So yeah, there'll be some minor tweaks and some little things for the players that they'll need to be flexible on.”

Same: Roster

Other than naming Jameis Winston ahead of Russell Wilson at quarterback, Kafka said he didn’t anticipate any other major changes being made to the roster.

“In terms of wise, player-wise, no,” he said. “Working with (general manager) Joe Schoen, we will have a good plan as we get closer to game day, like working through the injuries and talking about how we want to handle the elevations and stuff.”

The Giants, by the way, appear to have a lengthy injury report for this week. But with the trade deadline having passed, there’s not all that much they can change as far as a roster overhaul.

Final Thoughts

Kafka politely declined to address a question about what makes him think he’s ready for the challenge he’s about to undertake. Still, he did articulate what he believes makes for a successful head coach, and he hopes to deliver it.

“ I think the best, the best head coaches I've been around are guys that are confident, poised, have direction, have a plan, and then go execute the plan,” he said. “If something goes just a little bit different, then you go, you go back, and you adjust.

“Accountability–holding guys accountable to the highest standard. If it's not right, fix it. Don't wait and let things just kind of trickle and, and and snowball, right? So you want to be able to do that.

“Guys who have empowered players to be their best. And so those are things that I've learned over my past that I think are great, great qualities and head coach and things that I try to do.”

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