Mike Kafka took a significant risk by accepting the Giants’ interim head-coaching position, one that could make him an afterthought when it’s time for teams to make permanent hires soon after the regular season concludes.
Still, there are a handful of benefits for Kafka betting on himself and showing a willingness to right the ship immediately after Monday’s abrupt firing of Brian Daboll, who went 20–40–1 in three and a half seasons as the Giants’ head coach.
Daboll not being retained for 2026 isn’t that surprising due to his third consecutive losing season, including a 2–8 record through 10 games. It’s been mostly all downhill since Daboll’s surprising playoff appearance in Year 1 of his stint with the Giants. However, it seemed Daboll was going to at least get the entire ’25 season because of how quickly rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart has developed.
Giants owner John Mara being willing to disrupt the development of Dart strongly shows how fed up he was with the blown leads and constant losing. The excuses had run out for Daboll despite his knack for producing quality offensive schemes.
That’s where the 38-year-old Kafka comes in. If he can make savvy late-game decisions in the remaining games this season while building on the progress Dart has shown in his seven career starts, the rising coach and former NFL quarterback has a legitimate shot of being the Giants’ head coach for 2026.
Kafka is in a challenging spot
Interim head coaches rarely get the permanent position. And the ones who do tend to get a short leash, as owners quickly wonder whether they made a mistake at the first sign of trouble.
Both Antonio Pierce and Freddie Kitchens went one-and-done after the Raiders and Browns, respectively, removed the interim tag. Ironically, these are two coaches with ties to the Giants, with Pierce winning a Super Bowl as a linebacker for the organization and Kitchens as an offensive coach on Joe Judge’s staff from 2020 to ’21.
Additionally, coaches who avoid the dreaded interim position and later get promoted from within also don’t receive much patience, which was the case with Jerod Mayo being fired in New England one year after replacing Bill Belichick. Now, the Patriots are 8–2 because owner Robert Kraft realized that he was wrong not to look outside the organization to replace the legendary coach. But Mike Vrabel, a proven winning coach, would have been the right decision for most organizations. That was a unique situation with the timing aligning well after Vrabel took a year off from the NFL.
We can spend all day looking at head-coaching paths, but again, Kafka has his own unique situation that makes him a legitimate option for the full-time position in New York. As Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr recently mentioned in his story for potential head-coaching candidates in Tennessee, “There are people who love Kafka.”
There’s plenty to like about Kafka’s résumé, the Northwestern product who started his NFL career as a backup quarterback for Andy Reid in the final years of his stint with the Eagles. Kafka, a 2010 fourth-round pick, also spent time with the Patriots, Jaguars, Buccaneers, Vikings, Titans and Bengals.
Kafka, who has appeared multiple times in Orr’s annual list of rising coaches, started his coaching journey as a graduate assistant at Northwestern in 2016. From there, the coach of Puerto Rican descent reunited with Reid as an offensive assistant coach with the Chiefs from 2017 to ’21.
Kafka took over as the Giants’ offensive coordinator in 2022 and quickly rose through the ranks, receiving head-coaching interviews with the Saints and Titans in recent years.
Kafka’s golden opportunity to build continuity with Dart
There’s an epidemic in the NFL of rookie first-round quarterbacks being forced to learn multiple playbooks in a short span due to rash head-coaching firings.
This was the case with Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield, two quarterbacks who eventually found stability after leaving the team that drafted them. The Giants are now seeing it with their 2019 first-round pick, Daniel Jones, who found out the grass was a lot greener in Indianapolis.
Surely, Mara must have had that on his mind, prioritizing continuity as the Giants continue developing Dart as a franchise quarterback. If there’s no regression in how Dart plays with Kafka as the head coach, he’ll likely get a fair shot to win the job when that time comes in January. But Kafka might have to wait for his prized rookie signal-caller because Dart sustained a concussion in the second half of Sunday’s loss against the Bears.
Overall, Daboll deserves a ton of credit for still getting stellar performances from Dart despite the season-ending injuries from star receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo. Dart’s gunslinger ways and timely runs earned him plenty of respect from the 49ers’ coaching staff a few weeks back. He was also outplaying Chicago’s Caleb Williams before the Bears sparked a comeback with Dart in concussion protocol.
It’s going to be pivotal for Kafka to prove he’s capable of preserving leads and making wise decisions in crunch time. That was a significant flaw for Daboll, one that ultimately doomed him and prevented him from continuing what he started after the bold decision to draft Dart at No. 25.
Kafka could maybe be the next Jason Garrett, a name Giants fans likely don’t want to hear as a comparison for their new coach. But Garrett was one of the rare coaches to have the interim tag removed and spent several years with the team that promoted him, serving as Cowboys’ head coach for nine seasons. Garrett was the Giants’ offensive coordinator for two seasons after being fired by Dallas.
Kafka had enough reasons to bet on himself, with building continuity and Dart at the top of the list.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mike Kafka Makes the Right Decision to Bet on Himself as Giants’ Interim Coach.
