🗣️🤔Would you be upset if Saquon wore another uniform, next season?🗣️🤔
New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll. Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Insider details ‘tension’ between Giants HC Brian Daboll, OC Mike Kafka
By Zac Wassink | Last updated 2/16/24
NFL insider Connor Hughes of SNY explained that “there was absolutely tension” between New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka that nearly resulted in him leaving the organization this winter.
“The idea there wasn’t is comical,” Hughes said. “…Kafka had his playcalling revoked at points last season — scapegoating him for the unit’s problems. He was open to leaving — maybe even more than that, I was told. The Giants prevented it. They were never going to let him leave for a lateral position.”
While it was suggested as far back as November that Daboll and then-New York defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale were having issues that led to him leaving the club in January, some were surprised to learn after Week 18 that Kafka could also have interest in joining a different team this offseason. The Giants parted ways with special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey, among others, but Big Blue blocked the Seattle Seahawks from interviewing Kafka regarding their offensive coordinator role.
“Replacing all three coordinators in one offseason is a major undertaking when the preference is to not have Daboll call the plays,” Hughes continued. “Remember, too: There could be changes if things go poorly again this year. The Giants need as much continuity as they can to try to return to their 2022 play.”
The Giants recently confirmed that Kafka “will have assistant head coach duties added to his role as offensive coordinator.” According to Ryan Chichester of Audacy, Giants legend and current CBS Sports NFL analyst Tiki Barber said last week such a move could ultimately result in Kafka heading elsewhere as soon as next January.
“The promotion, or added job title, comes with a pay boost,” Hughes noted. “That’s commonplace in the NFL. A team prevents you from leaving but gives you extra money in response. To view that as a sign all is A-OK between the two in Giants land is silly.”
The Giants going 6-11 this past season coupled with whatever did and/or didn’t occur between Daboll and his coordinators over the past two years seemingly could cause team co-owner John Mara to clean house if New York produces a second straight losing campaign. Daboll’s 2023 squad simply didn’t win enough for the 48-year-old to allegedly showcase a “madman” demeanor on gamedays.
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Pat Leonard: Giants GM Joe Schoen under pressure to get it right in Year 3
New York Giants General Manager Joe Schoen speaks to the media at the NFL football team’s practice facility, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Head coach Brian Daboll has earned the bulk of the scrutiny coming out of a toxic and dysfunctional 6-11 Giants season that puts him on the hot seat entering Year 3.
But this is just as much Joe Schoen’s mess as it is Daboll’s, even if the fire isn’t burning as obviously beneath his chair.
The GM was handed the keys to this organization more than two years ago, when the Mara ownership family was under heavy criticism for persistent meddling during an historically bad 22-59 stretch (.271 win %) from 2017-2021.
And while Schoen scotch-taped a 9-7-1 playoff season and Wild Card win together in his first year, the Giants’ 2023 regression fell squarely on his operation — his offseason decision-making, his roster construction, and his enabling of an overwhelmed coach and an underperforming athletic training staff.
That’s the Catch-22 of having autonomy: it means getting both the credit and the blame.
“Joe Schoen is in charge,” one team source said. “It’s not like Rex Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum were with the Jets. No one questions who is in charge in the building. It’s a GM-centric organization. It’s not like Brian Daboll is Bill Belichick, where he’s drafting the players.”
The result is that Schoen enters the 2024 season as a man beset from all sides, even though the Mara and Tisch families traditionally are light years more patient with their general managers than their coaches.
He is beset from all sides in that he is still looking for a franchise quarterback, despite paying Daniel Jones on a four-year, $160 million contract last spring. He is under pressure to fix an offensive line that has gotten worse on his watch, which is hard to do here.
He has to address the franchise’s annual injury problem, which is a delicate lift given the politics of the organization. He has a head coach on thin ice, with whom Schoen was hired as part of a package deal coming from the Buffalo Bills. (Lots of staff members ran for the hills after the season, and Schoen had to block others from escaping).
Meanwhile, Belichick is a free agent, available to take over one of the NFL franchises that falters this season in 2025. And the Giants have their backs against the wall again due to a misjudgment about their team’s ability and a rush to compete sooner than they were able.
“You do a deal with Daniel, and you see how it was structured, so you try to expedite the process and give him a chance to succeed,” Schoen said in January, admitting he accelerated his plan with the roster in 2023, a decision that backfired badly.
No one knows if the clock on Schoen is ticking inside the Giants owners’ heads. By all accounts, Mara and Tisch finally understood in 2022 — after firing three straight head coaches either during or after their second season — that it was time to stop expecting a quick fix. And they intend to see this through with Schoen.
It would also be difficult to rationalize giving Dave Gettleman four years and Schoen three. Not to mention that the buck always stops anyway with Mara, even when a GM like Schoen has the closest thing to free reign.
“This is still John Mara’s team,” another team source said. “Never forget that. John Mara runs the Giants.”
But with the NFL Combine (Feb. 26), football’s free agency (March 13) and the NFL Draft (April 25) around the bend, Schoen now enters the pivotal offseason of his Giants’ tenure — his first as an NFL GM.
He will either get the process on track or strike out as so many others have recently in East Rutherford, N.J., and share their fate.
His headlining decisions will center on the quarterback and the coach.
When Schoen took this job, he saw a likely opportunity to select his own QB with a high draft pick after the 2022 season. But the Giants won their way out of a high draft pick in 2023 and then paid Jones big money instead of franchise-tagging him, when they failed to lock up Saquon Barkley and needed the tag for him.
Mara was on the phone with Jones during the home stretch of those negotiations. The results were disastrous, and now the team is tied to Jones for at least one more 2024 season due to that contract.
So Schoen faces a decision with the No. 6 overall pick: build around Jones to improve the team in the short term to save jobs and demonstrate progress or draft his own QB and try to build a sufficient roster to compete in 2024 so the rookie can develop, take over and shepherd the Giants and this regime into a profitable and sustainable future.
Regarding the head coach, Schoen and the Giants so far have run aggressive damage control in support of Daboll to try to keep this version of the team afloat into 2024. But Schoen also spent four games on the coaches’ headsets last season, as the Daily News exclusively reported.
His presence there sent a clear message about the state of the team and the staff, and if this season starts poorly again, Schoen may have a decision to make on his Bills running mate either in-season or post.
The ideal scenario is to win together and set a strong foundation, but if this keeps going south, Schoen might have to choose between saving the coach and saving himself — with the specter and public speculation around a Belichick Giant return hovering, substantiated or not.
Improving the roster, of course, could help the GM solve a lot of these problems. And it starts with the quarterback. Not everyone can find Patrick Mahomes.
But in the past four years, Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach did find starting linebacker Leo Chenal in the NFL Draft’s fifth round, starting running back Isiah Pacheco in the seventh, starting guard Trey Smith in the sixth, starting corner L’Jarius Sneed in the fourth and Super Bowl starting guard Nick Allegretti in the seventh.
That’s in addition to selecting top receiver Rashee Rice, starting linebacker Nick Bolton and starting center Creed Humphrey all in the second round the past three years.
Schoen needs to get the offensive line right and do it now, no matter who his QB is. His 2022 O-line draft misses on Evan Neal (first round), Josh Ezeudu (third) and Marcus McKethan (fifth) crippled the Giants’ chances in 2023.
The strength of the Chiefs’ line was their interior. That featured high-priced guard Joe Thuney most of the season and then started three draft picks in Allegretti, Humphrey and Smith in their Super Bowl LVIII win.
Injuries are a major issue, too, and Schoen needs to approach them differently.
He has hired two new strength coaches: director of strength and conditioning Frank Piraino from the Titans, and executive director of player performance Aaron Wellman from Indiana. (Piraino is now the fourth former Titans coach to join the Giants this offseason, with former Titans interim GM Ryan Cowden sitting as an executive advisor to Schoen).
But what Schoen needs to do is reassess and identify better practice and recovery plans to get to the root of those persistent problems with head athletic trainer Ronnie Barnes, director of rehab Leigh Weiss and the athletic training and medical staff.
The Giants’ bodies weren’t ready to play in Week 1 last season, and injuries are not a new problem in north Jersey.
Schoen’s long to-do list, of course, is nothing new for a GM who took over Gettleman’s roster and salary cap mess two years ago. But what’s different are the stakes of his third season, the pivotal decisions he faces that will define his tenure and the pressure he’ll be under if he doesn’t get it right.
The most common observation about the Giants during Super Bowl week in Las Vegas — from radio row to the casino floors to the restaurants and bars along Sin City’s strip — was that Schoen and Daboll had won too quickly in 2022.
That created higher expectations for them in Year 2, caused them to expedite part of the process to win in 2023 and led to their expensive commitment to Jones and all the pain that followed.
There is no turning back, though. Schoen can only look ahead and do what he thinks is best. And this time, he has to get it right.
