Mike Kafka Focused on Big Second Season with Giants

After nearly landing a head coaching job this offseason, Mike Kafka is back and ready to help the New York Giants offense take the next step.

First-year coordinators are interesting to follow. Week by week, watching how they operate their respective sides of the ball is how one would determine if that coordinator is the right fit for the team.

Mike Kafka squeezed every last ounce of what the Giants' offense had in 2022. Initially, there wasn’t much to work with, but Kafka and the offensive staff did what they could to help the Giants reach the playoffs.

It’s year two now for Kafka. Hailing from the Chiefs organization, he knows something about being creative in an offense. There are a few key new faces at skill positions that the Giants didn’t have last year. He’s now tasked with ensuring everyone has a role in this system.

“I think the best way to put it is we're just trying to identify roles for our guys. So, whether that's putting them inside, outside, in different spots. That’s part of why I love our staff; they're creative and work together on that kind of stuff. So, it's been good to experiment with it and find out which roles those guys fit into best.”

Before his coaching career, Kafka was a quarterback. Drafted by the Eagles in the fourth round of the 2010 draft, he played in just four career games. He bounced around from team to team until eventually retiring to start his coaching journey. As both player and coach, Kafka’s been around long enough to notice the change that NFL offenses have gone through over the last decade. He’s trying his best to challenge his offense and himself to become a better play caller.

“I've been in a few different offenses. I don't know if you know much about my story, but I bounced around the league for several years on multiple teams. So, I've seen a few different offenses, and each one of them are different. The concepts might be similar, but the verbiage and all that stuff might be different. West Coast, numbers," he said.

"There are all kinds of different systems out there now. I think when you look around the NFL over the last ten years, you're seeing a transition to more spread out, more up-tempo, you're seeing guys that are athletic in different spots, whether in the backfield or on the perimeter. You're seeing these coaches and players adapt to things you're seeing in high school and college, and that stuff is trickling up into the National Football League. So, it's great, it's fun. I think you're seeing a lot of creative ideas around the league. It’s cool to watch.”

Daniel Jones, in year two of this offensive system, is one of, if not the biggest things being looked at. Jones has had the same offensive coordinator for consecutive seasons just once in his career (Jason Garrett). Jones now gets the opportunity to keep growing in an NFL-level system that will only get more creative and explosive as the days go by. Kafka is excited for Jones, who has reportedly looked confident during the first few days of training camp.

“Year 2 is always a little bit easier for everybody, especially when you start brand new with a whole staff, and you're getting to understand everybody, and you're looking to build trust and relationships. Year one was kind of the first part of the process. Working into year two, there's a lot more comfort; there's a lot more familiarity," Kafka said.

"I think everyone has an understanding of the strengths and the weaknesses of not only the scheme but the players and how we're coaching it and how we're teaching it, how we're running it. So, year two is always easier. I mean, even for myself, same thing, just another year under my belt being with DJ (quarterback Daniel Jones) and being with the offensive line, the group, and the offense, and the whole staff. So, everything is just a little bit more smooth, but we’ve still got to put in the work, and we’ve still got to go through the process.”

One aspect of training camp that will benefit the offense is going up against Wink Martindale’s defense. Martindale’s scheme is aggressive and involves lots of blitzing and pressure that “breaks pipes.” Kafka and Martindale constantly communicate about how they want to orchestrate team periods.

“It's a competitive camp. That’s how it should be, but me and Wink have a great dialogue about the practice plan and certain things that he wants to see, certain things that I want to see," Kafka said.

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