{"id":113724,"date":"2026-01-27T11:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T11:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/113724\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T11:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T11:13:19","slug":"mike-kafka-joining-lions-staff-after-failed-stint-as-giants-interim-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/113724\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Kafka joining Lions staff after failed stint as Giants&#8217; interim coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Giants interim head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka is joining the Lions coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p>Kafka will be in a \u201chigh-ranking offensive staff role,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TomPelissero\/status\/2015891740687814818\" rel=\"nofollow\">NFL Network\u2019s Tom Pelissero reported Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t immediately clear what that position would be in Detroit, but he\u2019ll join head coach Dan Campbell\u2019s staff after the Lions went 9-8 this year and missed out on the playoffs after back-to-back seasons making the postseason.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38294627\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/head-coach-mike-kafka-interim-117967654.jpg\" alt=\"New York Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka watching during a game.\" class=\"wp-image-38294627\"  \/>Interim head coach Mike Kafka of the Giants looks on during the second quarter of the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on December 28, 2025  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Kafka spoke with the Eagles about their vacant OC position recently.<\/p>\n<p>Since joining the Giants in 2022, from the Chiefs, Kafka\u2019s name was mentioned in head coach hiring cycles.<\/p>\n<p>He took over as interim Giants head coach after Brian Daboll was fired in November and led Big Blue to a 2-5 record.<\/p>\n<p>Kafka did interview for the head coach job that went to former Ravens coach John Harbaugh.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.83203125;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38294645\" width=\"491\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-new-york-giants-speaks-117351509.jpg\" alt=\"New York Giants head coach Mike Kafka speaking with quarterback Jaxson Dart during a football game.\" class=\"wp-image-38294645\"\/>Quarterback Jaxson Dart #6 of the New York Giants speaks with head coach Mike Kafka on the side during the fourth quarter of the Giants and Washington Commanders game in East Rutherford, NJ.  Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n<p>Kafka called the Giants offensive plays in 2022, \u201923 and \u201925.<\/p>\n<p>The Lions moved on from offensive coordinator John Morton after the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>Detroit recently hired Drew Petzing as its offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>News about Kafka came the same day the Lions reached a new agreement to retain safeties coach Jim O\u2019Neil, after he interviewed for the open Jets defensive coordinator job earlier this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Giants interim head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka is joining the Lions coaching staff. Kafka will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2675,15252,9,2683,11,10,22,319],"class_list":["post-113724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-detroit-lions","tag-mike-kafka","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}