Giants’ head coach could strip OC Mika Kafka of his play-calling duties this season

Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll at the NY Giants NFL team held an organized team activity at their training facility in East Rutherford, NJ on Thursday May 30, 2024.
Credit: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

The New York Giants’ offense was abysmal in 2023, averaging 15.6 points per game. They struggled to move the ball downfield with consistency and oftentimes found themselves failing to convert while in the red zone. As a result, some serious changes could soon be made to the structure of the offense.

Mike Kafka led a subpar offense in 2023

mike kafka, daniel jones, new york giants

Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka has been the Giants’ playcaller on offense since being hired during the 2022 offseason. His playcalling has been inconsistent and, resultingly, New York’s offense has struggled.

In 2022, Big Blue’s offense ranked 18th in the NFL with 333.9 total yards per game. Their middle-of-the-road unit was good enough to get them into the postseason, but still needed to improve. Instead, the offense fell apart in 2023 and plummeted down to 280.0 yards per game, 29th in the NFL.

Giants head coach Brian was hired for his brilliant offensive mind and ability to develop talent on that side of the ball. So far in his tenure, the offense has been New York’s biggest weakness as he has delegated playcalling duties to Kafka. Daboll could soon take matters into his own hands and take over as the Giants’ playcaller.

Brian Daboll has practicing his playcalling at Giants OTAs

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll walks on the field before the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium
Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Daboll has been toying with the idea of calling plays all offseason long. He mentioned that it was a possibility earlier in the offseason and has been practicing calling plays during OTAs this spring.

“I’ve called plays for a long time,” Daboll told the media (h/t Giants.com). “So it’s good to get out here at practice and do it, but there’s a whole process that goes through with it. There’s training camp. There’s OTAs. And I’ll make the decision, like I said back in March, that I feel is best.”

While Daboll could wind up taking over the playcalling duties, he made it clear to the media that a final decision is still a long way away:

“We’ll go through training camp, make a decision here by the end of training camp.”

A decision is far from being made, but there seems to be a strong chance of Daboll taking over as the playcaller. According to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, “all signs point” to Daboll calling plays this season. This would be a drastic change for the offense, but it could be a necessary alteration that allows the offense to return to playing at a high level in 2024.

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