If Mike Kafka is going to earn the full-time — I won’t say “permament” because nothing is permanent in the NFL — he needs to win some games over the next seven weeks. More importantly, perhaps, he will
need to show Giants’ ownership that he can lead a full team while setting standards and demonstrating that he can and will hold players to them.
Among the things that got Brian Daboll fired, an inability to hold players accountable was perhaps at the root of everything. The Giants have seemed like a say what you want, do what you want, play with whatever level of effort or non-effort you want without real consequences group for the last couple of years.
Kafka has seven games to make a dent in, or reverse, that impression entirely.
Fortunately, setting and maintaining expectations seems to be high on his priority list. In talking on Wednesday about what he believes makes a great head coach, this is part of what Kafka said:
“Accountability, holding guys accountable to the highest standard. If it’s not right, fix it, don’t wait and let things just kind of trickle and snowball. You want to be able to do that.”
On Friday, Kafka expanded on what that meant.
“I think you have a set standard on how you want to operate in the meeting rooms, on the field, as a pro and around the building, how you communicate with your players, and I think if it’s not up to standard, then you’ve got to show them the ‘why’ it’s not up to standard, how it can be changed, how it can be different, and if little things are not right, then you’ve got to go and fix it immediately,” Kafka said. “You don’t want to just leave that to chance. If you can identify it fast enough, you go in there and you get it fixed, and then you show them the ‘why’ this is going to make you a better football player, why do we do this? It’s not just talk. It’s not just anything. This is why we do these things. It’s because it helps us on Sunday. It helps us win games.”
Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, who is having a sub-par season, said this week that Kafka has been “throwing little jabs and little comments at the defensive line, just challenging the defense daily.”
Maybe that will help get Lawrence out of whatever funk he has been in.
From 2000-2024, 49 coaches were fired midseason, per Pro Football Rumors. Twelve of the interim head coaches who took over (24.5%) have been given the full-time job for the following season.
Overall, we will see over the next couple of months if Kafka, who projects a quiet but no-nonsense demeanor, has the chops to deliver on setting and enforcing some much-needed standards. If he can, that gives him a shot at becoming No. 13.
Jeff Hafley checks a lot of boxes
Packers’ defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is a name that is popping up consistently when the topic turns to candidates for the Giants’ full-time coaching job. If, of course, Kafka doesn’t make all of the list-making and name-dropping moot by killing it for the next two months and forcing the Giants to give him the job.
Hafley, 46, checks a lot of boxes when you think about Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin, the Super Bowl era coaches the Giants have been most successful with. Hafley is a Jersey guy (Montvale). Played football at Siena College in upstate New York. Assistant coach at UAlbany and Rutgers. Head coach for four seasons at Boston College. You do remember the last BC guy who coached the Giants, right?
This won’t make Giants’ fans want Hafley to at least get an interview any less:
Former Giant Xavier McKinney is already endorsing the idea that Hafley will become a good head coach.
“He’s a really good coach,” said McKinney, the former Giant. “He’s a players’ coach and I think he’s done a great job with just continuing to build his resume. I’m sure when that time comes for him, I know he’s going to make the right decision. Whatever that is for him, I’m for it. I root for Haf. I definitely think he’s a really good coach, really good guy and I think he’ll be a great coach for that position because it’s not an easy thing to do it, but I think he would do a good job at it.”
Because everything the Giants do has to be about setting Jaxson Dart up for success, a defensive-minded coach like Hafley would have to lay out an actionable plan for who would handle the offensive side of the ball. Still, Hafley’s seems like a name to watch.
It is noteworthy that Hafley has a connection to Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel from their days together with the Cleveland Browns. McDaniel, highly-regarded for his work as an offensive play caller, could be on the verge of losing his job as Miami Dolphins head coach.
Only the beginning?
The Giants began this week to right some of the wrongs of the recent past when it came to roster construction.
The placement of Graham Gano on IR likely means the end of Gano’s tenure as a Giant. After two injury-plagued seasons that tenure probably should have ended during the offseason rather than after two more injuries cost the Giants in the win column.
The signing of rookie placekicker Ben Sauls to the practice squad might be a window into the team’s thinking next year. If, of course, Joe Schoen is still the GM.
Special teams coach Michael Ghobrial said this week that the Giants had Sauls “ranked pretty high” coming out of the draft.
“Get an opportunity to work with him at some point, I think, is important. I think he’s a young and up-and-coming kicker. The talent is certainly there,” Ghobrial said. “He’s a guy that we obviously identified early on in the draft process that we were like, this guy has a chance to kick in this league.”
Bringing Isaiah Hodgins back was another move in that vein. Hodgins is not a great player, but he is a useful receiver. Why he got buried by the Giants his last two seasons is a mystery.
The question is, will the Giants go beyond small moves? Will Evan Neal’s hamstring land him on IR, or end up with him cut? Will anything change in the coming weeks with Jalin Hyatt or Deonte Banks?
That is worth watching.
Green and gold takeover?
Packers’ fans are known for traveling well. In any circumstance, there would be a hefty contingent of green-and-gold clad fans at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
I do, wonder, though, if the firing of Daboll convinced some Giants fans to keep their tickets rather than put them on the secondary market for Green Bay fans to snap up.
We’ll find out on Sunday.
Jameis juice
I picked the Packers to win on Sunday.Or, more accurately, I picked the Giants to lose. That is the safe, smart thing to do if you are putting money on the game. I am not, to be clear.
The thing is, though, no one should be surprised if Jameis Winston has a monster game on Sunday and leads the Giants to an upset victory. Winston’s history, with five 400-yard passing games in his career, shows he is capable of that.
Winston is a vocal, respected presence with the Giants despite having spent the season as the No. 3 quarterback. Every player asked about Winston this week broke into a wide smile at the mention of his name.
“Jameis is a positive guy, but he’s also kind of an electric personality,” said wide receiver Darius Slayton, who won’t play due to a hamstring injury. A guy that draws people in and makes people believe.
“You know everybody’s alive. It doesn’t matter where you’re running or what you’re running, he can gun it anywhere and he will gun it anywhere. For a receiver, that’s what you love. You love to have a chance, you love to feel like the guy is going to give you a chance, and I think that’s kind of been Jameis’ whole career is that type of M.O. and why he’s led the league in passing before. So, like I said, I think he’ll do a good job this weekend.”
With no Jaxson Dart, with no Cam Skattebo and with the kind of week the Giants have had they could use some sunshine. Maybe Winston can provide it.
