We're 12 days away from the start of the new league year, which means it's an ideal time for coaches to receive additions to their titles.
Mike Kafka is the latest to enjoy this, as the Chiefs promoted him from quarterbacks coach to quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator, the team announced Friday. Kansas City also hired former Missouri assistant coach Andy Hill as assistant special teams coach.
Kafka's increase in title comes as no surprise to those closely following movement of assistant coaches. Once a quarterback in Philadelphia under Andy Reid, Kafka was pursued by current Eagles coach Doug Pederson for the team's vacant offensive coordinator role. He wasn't exactly blocked, as there was never a formal request submitted, but it was made clear Kafka would be staying in Kansas City. As a result, the addition of passing game coordinator has been added to Kafka's title, while Philadelphia decided to replace Mike Groh by splitting duties between Press Taylor (passing game coordinator) and Jeff Stoutland (offensive line coach and running game coordinator).
Kafka rose from offensive quality control coach in 2017 to quarterbacks coach in 2018, a role in which he served in 2019 as well and will continue to do so while taking on a larger role in the team's passing game (which won them a Super Bowl, by the way).
Hill will be making a bit of a longer commute with the Chiefs, moving from Columbia to Kansas City after spending the last two decades on the Tigers' staff in a variety of roles. The Missouri Sports Hall of Famer spent his last two seasons as the associate head coach and special teams coordinator under Barry Odom, who was fired at the end of the 2019 season. With Eliah Drinkwitz moving from Appalachian State to Missouri, Hill sought work elsewhere and won't have to relocate far from where he has coached since the turn of the century.
