If the Giants are looking for their next full-time head coach to set firm boundaries for their undisciplined roster, Mike Kafka did not make a strong case for himself on Wednesday.
The Giants‘ interim head coach refused to condemn wide receiver Malik Nabers‘ social media post that called out the team for looking like they were trying to lose Sunday’s game in Detroit on purpose.
In fact, Kafka claimed he hadn’t seen Nabers’ tweet at all. That might make him the only person in America who has an account on ‘X,’ likes football and didn’t see Nabers’ rant.
“I think the beauty of the National Football League is the players have the ability to express themselves,” Kafka said. “That’s the beauty of the National Football League. You can express yourself any way you want.
“The beauty of it is, and I think any player, they’re going to go out there and they’re going to have an opinion of what they’d like to see,” he added. “But at the end of the day, those are the calls we’re going to make on game day. And those are the calls we’re going to make for the betterment of the team.”
Nabers, 22, who is now rehabbing his surgically repaired knee here in New Jersey, lashed out on Sunday when the Giants collapsed in a 34-27 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions.
“Sometimes I think they b makin us lose on purpose!” Nabers wrote in his since-deleted post. “Cause it’s no way, bro you throw the ball instead of runnin it to make em burn 2 timeouts?? then you dnt kick the field goal.??? Then they have to go down and score!!! Football common sense!!!! Am I missing something?”
While Kafka claimed on Wednesday that he hadn’t seen Nabers’ tweet, he responded to the contents of it. So he was obviously familiar with the criticism levied by his No. 1 wideout who is currently on injured reserve.
“I actually didn’t even see it. I didn’t even see it. So all I know is that I really like the call. I stand by it,” Kafka said of the decision to go for it on fourth and goal rather than kicking a field goal. “I don’t have any regrets about it. I thought we were aggressive to try to go win the game.”
Kafka later admitted, after being pressed several times to clarify that he didn’t mind the rant, that he thinks “players can obviously respond any way they want to anything they want, but if it’s something that’s detrimental to the team, we’ll address it in-house and talk through it and move on.”
But Kafka’s reluctance to put his foot down on Nabers’ mouthy rant sounded a lot like how Brian Daboll handled this roster and players like Nabers: He enabled them.
And look how that turned out.
DART TURNS IN A FULL PRACTICE
Kafka said Jaxson Dart (concussion) would be a “full participant” in Wednesday’s “condensed” practice with some full speed and walk through elements.
“He’s still in the protocol, but he’ll get some work out there today with the group,” Kafka said.
There is a chance Dart, 22, could clear the concussion protocol and return to the lineup Monday at New England. But that probably won’t be known until Friday or Saturday.
For a second straight week, Kafka indicated that if the doctors clear Dart, he will play.
“If he’s ready to play … then we have a plan for him, then we’ll put him in,” Kafka said.
WHAT’S WITH THE GLOVES?
Jameis Winston wore gloves in practice all week last week and during Sunday’s game in Detroit, after not wearing gloves during his previous start against the Packers. And he made his first career NFL reception, a 33-yard touchdown catch and run.
On Wednesday, Winston was asked if he wore gloves because he knew he was going to have to be a receiver. And he said, no, he wore the gloves because in 2019, in his only other career start in Detroit, he had thrown for 458 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-17 Tampa Bay Buccaneers win.
“The last time I was in Detroit I wore gloves, and I threw for like 400 yards, so I was feeling that energy and I wanted to do that again,” Winston said with a chuckle. “And I was close.”
He added: “I might break ’em out this week.”
Winston was wearing the gloves during Wednesday’s practice, too. Does that mean he thinks he has a chance to start again on Sunday in New England?
To be continued.
DEXTER, THIBODEAUX DOWN ON WEDNESDAY
Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence did not practice Wednesday due to a left elbow injury that he aggravated on Sunday. That’s the same elbow that limited Lawrence all offseason after he dislocated it last November in Dallas.
“Hats off to Dexter for toughing it out and working through that, because he got dinged up pretty well,” Kafka said. “I mean this guy was like in tears on the sideline, but [he] just wanted to be out there with the players and gave us his all.”
Lawrence had to be rotated in and out of the game in the fourth quarter because the injury “flared up” even more. Kafka would not disclose who told him that the injury meant the Giants needed to limit his snaps.
“Yeah, the communication was brought up to me,” he said.
Lawrence then was off the field for Jahmyr Gibbs’ 69-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage of overtime.
“The decision was just to kind of play him in those pass situations, second and longs [and] third and longs so he can be a factor on a limited snap count,” Kafka said. “I thought that was the right thing to do.”
There was no official injury report on Wednesday because the Giants don’t play until Monday night, but edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux (shoulder) and linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (neck) did not participate, either.
WHAT’S WITH DRU?
Slot corner Dru Phillips, who made some strong tackles in a bounce back performance from his Week 12 Packers benching, had a scary moment in Sunday’s fourth quarter.
He made a diving tackle at the legs of Lions tight end Brock Wright on the sideline and then stayed down and lied motionless, face down for about 10 seconds on the turf.
Kafka said the Giants’ “medical staff checked him out” and “cleared him to get back in the game.”
“I trust what they saw,” he said. “I know that he went into the tent, went through the whole procedure, and I was aware of it. And the medical staff cleared him. So we’re going to put him back in if that’s what our medical professionals said.”
The coach was asked if Phillips had been cleared from a possible concussion or if the tests were for some other injury. He wouldn’t answer.
“I think it’s just like their normal procedure, any kind of head, neck, they go and do those testing,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent sure in all the concussion protocol procedures, but that’s like pretty common practice. Anybody that goes through head and neck stuff or gets dinged like that, they’re going to check them out.”
Phillips returned to the game and played five more snaps — four more in the fourth quarter and one in overtime.
FITZ IS JUST A FRIEND
Kafka said Pat Fitzgerald, the former Northwestern head coach who visited for last week’s Giants practices, will not end up having an official title with the team.
“Coach Fitz is a good friend of mine, just visiting, but he won’t really be involved in terms of our staff,” Kafka said.
RUN, PATRIOTS, RUN
Interim defensive coordinator Charlie Bullen, who had been the Giants’ outside linebackers coach previously, had defensive line coaches Andre Patterson and Bryan Cox teaching the edges and defensive backs how to set the edge and tackle off a block during individual drills.
That was the most notable adjustment during the team’s first practice since Monday’s firing of defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.
The Giants defense, with Patterson and Cox coaching the front, is allowing a league-worst 5.9 yards per carry and a league-worst 157.2 rush yards per game. The Patriots, who are near the bottom of the NFL in rush yards per carry (3.9) and per game (87.7), are up next on Monday night in Foxborough.
