New Giants coach Brian Daboll is plucking an assistant from Andy Reid's coaching tree.
New York is expected to hire Chiefs quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka as the Giants' offensive coordinator, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport reported. The deal is not yet done, but it is anticipated Kafka will be headed east to join Big Blue.
Kafka entered the NFL as a player in 2010 with Reid's Eagles, arriving via a fourth-round pick. The Northwestern product quickly made an impression on Reid with his intelligence and leadership skills, but Kafka's brains didn't take him very far as a player, appearing in just four games in his professional career. His shift to coaching, however, has seen his same smarts propel him to one step below head coach in a relatively short amount of time.
The Giants' new OC first cut his teeth as a coach with Reid's Chiefs, serving as offensive quality control coach in 2017 before moving into the role of quarterbacks coach in 2018 through 2021. He added the title of passing game coordinator in 2020 and assisted an offense that finished fourth in passing in 2021.
Kafka will take what he learned from working under Reid and with Patrick Mahomes and attempt to lead a turnaround in New York, where the Giants currently have former first-round pick Daniel Jones as their starting quarterback. Jones has flashed franchise-quarterback potential at times in his career, but has been bogged down by a Giants offense lacking direction, adequate blocking and the availability of key playmakers.
Jones hasn't helped his cause much with his penchant for turnovers, either. In 38 career games, Jones has fumbled 36 times and thrown 29 interceptions.
Kafka has his work cut out for him, but if Daboll has proven anything from his work with Josh Allen in Buffalo, he has an ability to remedy once-fatal flaws in young quarterbacks. He'll team with Kafka with the hopes of engineering another reclamation -- or forge ahead with a new quarterback -- in New York.
