There was not much sense of loss in the Giants‘ locker room two days after Brian Daboll’s firing.
Mike Kafka has inherited a team that could go a lot of different ways in these final seven weeks. The Giants (2-8) know their season is already over.
Players will be motivated to put good football on tape for their next opportunity and to earn bonuses — and to get at least one win to show some pride.
But outside of some prepared thank yous to Daboll from Jameis Winston and Kafka — and remorse from Brian Burns that it didn’t work out — the Giants’ players came off as anywhere from loose to indifferent to simply not broken up about it.
“It’s kind of the repercussions of not winning,” wideout Darius Slayton said.
Kafka handled his first press conference as the interim head coach well.
“I think the best head coaches I’ve been around are guys that are confident, poised, have a direction, have a plan and then go execute the plan,” Kafka said. “You have flexibility to adjust. 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… Empower players to be their best.”
He also showed some fight by naming tight ends coach Tim Kelly his new offensive coordinator, passing over offensive passing game coordinator and QB coach Shea Tierney.
Tierney, a Daboll loyalist, had been next in line under Daboll and called plays in the second half against Dallas in 2023 when Daboll took those responsibilities away from Kafka.
Daboll actually gave Tierney a promotion coming off that 6-11 season while stripping Kafka of playcalling completely, taking it over himself and sidelining Kafka with an assistant head coach title as a consolation prize.
That resulted in a 3-14 season. Daniel Jones, the quarterback Tierney was in charge of improving, was blamed and released. Now Jones is the starting QB of the 8-2, NFL best Indianapolis Colts.
So Kafka put his stamp on who he is going to trust and empower most, while keeping offensive playcalling duties himself even as the head coach.
Good for him.
This entire coaching staff will be out at the end of this season anyway. But Kafka, who is auditioning now for the full-time job, is the potential exception.
So this is his chance to do it his way.
Winston, who thanked Daboll for welcoming him and his family to New York, said Kafka is “very poised on the sideline.”
And Slayton said the “naturally even-keeled” former NFL quarterback now coaching the team “has a fire in his gut.”
“In his heart, he’s a player, and to play at this level, you have to have something about you,” Slayton said. “Guys are still positive, still encouraged. From an offensive perspective, he has our respect and appreciation.”
It will still be a challenge to turn this into a winning football team.
Even for one Sunday.
Kafka does not have much of a relationship to the defensive side of the ball. Shane Bowen’s unit is going to sink or swim with the same attempted adjustments that have led to constant collapses and a near total absence of complementary football.
Come gameday, Kafka will have a chance to demonstrate a better understanding of the clock, game management and situational football than Daboll — that shouldn’t be hard.
But he also has to adjust his offense to a new quarterback in Winston, which will mean running something completely different from what Jaxson Dart has deployed.
And on top of that, the Giants are completely decimated by injuries on both sides of the ball.
All of that is to say that Kafka is doing his best and struck the right notes on Wednesday. He even was throwing passes to wide receivers early in practice, showing off that former NFL quarterback arm.
Given the locker room’s apathy, however, and the numerous factors changing at rapid speed around this team, it’s anybody’s guess how the Giants players will respond on Sunday against the Packers.
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The Giants placed kicker Graham Gano on injured reserve on Wednesday due to the herniated disc in his back.
His career with the team is probably over.
Gano, 38, a former Pro Bowler, has had a solid NFL career.
But a kicker injury and team mismanagement of the position has cost the Giants at least four games in the last three seasons with Gano at the center of it all.
This was another overdue measure that is coming too late.
