The New York Giants are in the process of drastically rebuilding their offensive coaching staff. After firing head coach Joe Judge, the Giants decided that former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll would replace him. Daboll, considered by many to be an offensive guru, quickly got to work hiring coordinators for his staff. Mike Kafka was hired as the team’s next offensive coordinator, an exciting move that could see the Giants combine the two high-powered Chiefs and Bills offensive schemes.
Mike Kafka was the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs and Bills ran offenses that differed drastically from the offense that the Giants ran in 2021. Jason Garrett ran a power run-heavy scheme. The Bills ran a spread offense that relied on high passing volume. The Chiefs also passed at a high volume in a dynamic west-coast scheme.
Taking a look at personnel grouping from 2021 could shed light on just how different the New York Giants’ offense will look under Daboll and Kafka in 2022.
How the Giants’ offense will change in 2022
Brian Daboll’s offensive scheme relies far more heavily on wide receivers than it does on tight ends and running backs. Expect to see far more empty backfield sets under Daboll. In Buffalo in 2021, the Bills ran 11-personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) on 71% of their offensive snaps (fifth-most in NFL). The Giants only spent 61% of their snaps in 11-personnel under Garrett and Kitchens in 2021 (61% also happens to be the league average).
More eye-opening than this grouping was the Bills’ frequent usage of 10-personnel. Buffalo used 10-personnel (four wide receivers, one running back, and zero tight ends) at the third-highest rate in the NFL last season. The Bills used four receivers on 7% of their snaps. For comparison, the Giants ran 10-personnel on 5 total snaps (less than one percent).
There is also reason to believe the Giants will invest far less in their second-string tight end position under Brian Daboll. The Giants invested a significant portion of their cap space in Kyle Rudolph to run an offensive scheme that featured a lot of two-tight end sets, which is 12-personnel. The Bills ran that grouping on only 8% of their offensive snaps compared to the Giants’ 26% in 2021. The Chiefs did run 12-personnel on 20% of their snaps, so maybe Mike Kafka will influence Daboll to use the grouping a bit more frequently. But, assuming the offense will be primarily built around the head coach’s scheme, the Giants will likely run far fewer two-tight end sets in 2022.
The Kansas City Chiefs also ran 11-personnel 67% of the time, a rate higher than the league average. Inevitably, the Giants will run more 11-personnel in 2022. Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka are turning the Giants into a pass-first spread offense in 2022.