The New York Giants are revamping their offense this summer with head coach Brian Daboll taking control. Daboll has been calling the plays this summer and is expected to continue to do so during the regular season.
Previously, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka had been the offense’s playcaller over the past two seasons. But with Kafka transferring his playcalling duties back to the head coach, his role with the offense has undergone a significant change.
Giants OC Mike Kafka explains his new role with the offense
The media was given the opportunity to speak to the Giants’ coaching staff coordinators on Thursday morning ahead of training camp practice No. 7, and Kafka was finally able to explain what his new role looks like:
“During the week I’m helping Dabes [head coach Brian Daboll] put together the offense, talking about the scheme, talking about the players, and talking about our roster and what that looks like on the offensive side of the football,” Kafka told Art Stapleton of NorthJersey.com.
“At the practice field, I’m helping complement the coaches and help coach and orchestrate how we’re gonna operate on offense as far as far as practice flow. Organizing drills and how we’re going to do those things. Again, it’s an open communication. It’s things that, sure, passes through me to Dabes, and we talk about how he wants to run it, and then we go back and execute it for him.”
As far as Kafka’s role on game days, he will let Daboll speak on that next time he meets with the media. But Kafka made it clear that, whatever his role may look like, he’s viewing this new season as a “learning opportunity” and doing his best to help the team win regardless of whether or not he is calling plays.
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The Giants’ offense already looks a lot different with Daboll at the helm
The Giants are placing an emphasis on creating more explosive plays this season with Daboll taking control of the offense. Not only has he taken control of the playcalling duties, but Jordan Raanan of ESPN recently reported that Daboll has also taken control of the day-to-day meetings for the offense:
“Brian Daboll is not just calling offensive plays this summer,” Raanan wrote. “He’s also running the offensive meetings.”
The Giants’ offense ranked 29th in the NFL with 280.0 total yards per game and ranked 30th in the NFL with 15.6 points per game while Kafka was still running the show last season. It was a historically bad outing for Big Blue’s offense, a detriment on Daboll’s part since that side of the ball is meant to be his calling card.
Veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton praised Daboll’s coaching style and expressed his excitement over the offense’s prioritization of creating explosive plays this summer:
“I think he’s definitely come out and made an emphasis on we need to make more plays down the field,” Slayton said per Raanan and ESPN. “We need to create more explosives — not just downfield but also catch-and-run scenarios, too. It’s something he’s really emphasized and I think it’s shown if you’ve watched practice. Even though we haven’t hit them all there has been an intention to try to get the ball down the field more.”
Under Kafka, the Giants’ offense struggled to push the ball downfield and create explosive plays. That should change this season with added talent in the skill position groups pairing with Daboll’s aggressive playcalling nature. Excitement is building around the offensive side of the ball as rookie wideout Malik Nabers continues to tear up the opposition during practice. The potential is there for a major bounce-back season from the Giants’ offense this season.
