The Giants gave Mike Kafka a promotion to assistant head coach final season to spray some cologne on their teaching employees’s stink coming off final season.
However now, with Brian Daboll on the verge of an apparent firing, they’re leaving Kafka marginalized on the perimeter of the NFL’s worst offense because the Giants (2-12) veer in the direction of a franchise-record tenth straight loss on Sunday in Atlanta.
The Joe Schoen-Giants public relations machine is already in excessive gear making an attempt to defend the GM’s indefensible efficiency whereas making clear that Daboll is about to pay the worth for the group’s dysfunction.
The concept of retaining this GM whereas firing the coach is outrageous, and that try at dodging accountability and revising historical past can be uncovered in due time.
Nonetheless, if Daboll is clearly on the best way out anyway, why not simply give Kafka a shot? To not consider him as their 2025 head coach or something. Only for his profession’s sake.
The Giants blocked Kafka from making a lateral escape to Seattle within the offseason after he endured a horrible dynamic below Daboll in 2023.
The group transparently gave him and quarterback Shea Tierney optics-based promotions coming off a season when the offense averaged a paltry 15.6 factors per recreation.
However now Daboll is one way or the other scoring even fewer factors per recreation (14.9) because the full-time play-caller in 2024.
Kafka, 37, continues to be younger. So he’ll have time to carve out a greater path some place else.
However what a catastrophe it has been for this promising teaching prospect off the Andy Reid tree to change into related to one of many worst offenses within the league and to stay round after 2023.
A minimum of for Kafka’s sake, he was solid out of the play-calling interior circle earlier than this operation went utterly within the tank on Daboll’s watch right here in 2024.
Nonetheless, Kafka was on monitor to go from Patrick Mahomes’ quarterbacks coach to Daniel Jones’ playoff offensive coordinator to a head teaching job. He was a finalist with the Arizona Cardinals after that 2022 run.
Now, he’ll in all probability need to take his drugs and press the reset button someplace like Carolina or Chicago to reboot that trajectory and show himself once more.
It might have been fascinating, frankly, for the Giants to have given Kafka the second half of this season to indicate them what sort of program he might run.
There’s nonetheless a pair video games left right here in the event that they wish to do proper by him.
Though possibly Kafka isn’t dying to inherit this mess, both. Possibly it’s higher that the subsequent three losses go on Daboll’s resume and never his.
LOCK, NABERS UPGRADED TO FULL PARTICIPANTS
The identical 5 Giants gamers didn’t observe on Thursday: edge rushers Brian Burns (ankle/neck) and Patrick Johnson (knee), linebacker Bobby Okereke (again), guard Aaron Stinnie (concussion) and nook Greg Stroman (shoulder/shin).
Eight gamers remained restricted: corners Deonte Banks (rib), Artwork Inexperienced (shoulder) and Dru Phillips (shoulder); broad receiver Wan’Dale Robinson (shoulder); middle John Michael Schmitz (ankle); quarterback Tommy DeVito (concussion); defensive lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches (neck/shoulder); operating again Tyrone Tracy Jr. (ankle) and nook Cor’Dale Flott (quad/finger), who had a brand new finger damage added to his designation.
Eight gamers had been full members: quarterback Drew Lock (heel/left elbow), broad receiver Malik Nabers (knee/foot), tight finish Chris Manhertz (ankle), security Dane Belton (knee), defensive lineman Cory Durden (shoulder), linebacker Dyontae Johnson (ankle) and lineman Austin Schlottmann (fibula).
