Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will have play-calling duties
Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka watches drills during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 2. Credit: Brad Penner
Most of the game plan and personnel roles will remain secret for a few more days, but Brian Daboll unveiled one important element of the Giants’ new offense that will debut Sunday against the Titans: Mike Kafka will be calling the plays.
The offensive coordinator did that in all three preseason games, so it is not exactly a surprise.
“I have a lot of confidence in Mike,” Daboll said on Monday. “We’ll stay with how we did things in the preseason.”
It’s how the Giants’ front office envisioned it when they hired Daboll from Buffalo and he hired Kafka from Kansas City: a system that allows Daboll to oversee the entirety of the team and not focus on one aspect alone. Although all signs pointed to this outcome, Daboll had been reluctant to verbally cede the play-calling duties he held in Buffalo over to Kafka until Monday.
The players have been impressed with Kafka, who will be making his NFL debut as a play-caller and likely will do so from the coaches’ booth rather than the sideline.
“It’s been very clean,” Daniel Jones said last week on the communication.
Said rookie wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson: “He knows how to get the guys matched up. He’s going to get us in a groove and get us going.”
Giants on Blake: Blank
Daboll’s first comments regarding the team’s decision to release projected starting inside linebacker Blake Martinez last Thursday afternoon essentially were no comments at all. “I’m not going to get into why we released, why we didn’t release, where he was at,” Daboll said. “That’s just how we’re going to handle our stuff here.”
Daboll did say he has “a lot of confidence” in the players who remain to fill that position and named Tae Crowder, Austin Calitro and Micah McFadden.
“I think those guys made strides each and every day [in training camp],” he said. “They made plays throughout the preseason . . . We have confidence in the guys who are on our roster.”
Daboll would not say if he thinks the Giants are a better team without Martinez, nor would he get into anything that occurred in the time between the initial cutdown to the 53-man roster last week, when Martinez was on the team, and his departure from the Giants two days later. He did, however, give a rather chilly farewell to the two-time Giants captain:
“I’d just say good luck to Blake and all the other guys we released.”
Giant steps
The Giants added CB Fabian Moreau to their practice squad, giving them a player with starting experience (including 16 games for the Falcons last year) to potentially compete with Aaron Robinson for that job with the Giants . . . Daboll was coy regarding the availability of LBs Kayvon Thibodeaux (knee) and Azeez Ojulari (calf) for Sunday’s game, calling both “day-to-day” . . . Daboll said backup QB Tyrod Taylor, who was knocked out of the preseason finale with a back injury, is “good to go” and expected to be in uniform on Sunday.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
