Mike Kafka's offseason, training camp and preseason audition has earned him a new job for 2022: play-caller.
The Giants will enter the regular season with Kafka in charge of the offense, head coach Brian Daboll announced Monday.
Kafka, the Giants' offensive coordinator, spent much of the offseason getting comfortable in the role, handling play scripts during OTAs and minicamp, and retained the duties in the preseason. He called plays during New York's 23-21 win over New England to open the preseason, and Daboll seemed pleased with Kafka's performance.
The buzz regarding the Giants' play-caller died down since then, but Daboll has apparently seen enough out of Kafka to give him play-calling power to open the season.
It's a notable decision because of Daboll's background. The coach earned the top job in New York largely because of his work with the Buffalo Bills as their play-caller, which included guiding Josh Allen toward stardom and transforming the Bills' offense into an explosive, prolific unit.
New York hired Daboll with the hopes he'd be able to do the same with Daniel Jones and the Giants. Daboll has not deviated from that goal, but he's taking more of a managerial approach -- as many successful head coaches do -- and delegating to Kafka, the former NFL quarterback who has proven capable of handling the job in the preseason.
His first true test arrives this Sunday in Nashville when the Giants face the Tennessee Titans.
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