with a hamstring injury<\/a>, is in his seventh season with the Giants \u2014 he and Dexter Lawrence are the longest-tenured players on the team \u2014 and this sort of internal motivation is nothing new to him. After all, this is the third time in the past three years that the Giants managed to win just two of their first 10 games.\u00a0<\/p>\nThis is a starting point for Kafka, though, and perhaps that resonates with the players and prompts them to ditch their losing ways for at least one afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kafka has never been a head coach at any level, and this will be an abrupt change of role for him. For the first time, it will be Kafka deciding to go for it or punt on fourth down, when to throw the red challenge flag, what to do with his timeouts, how to deal with the expected rain. All this, while also retaining his play-caller duties on offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kafka said he will lean on Ty Siam, the director of football data and innovation, and Cade Knox, the offensive assistant\/game manager, in the press box for guidance. This was Daboll\u2019s in-game strategic team, as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251114_GiantsPractice_CS013.jpg\")
New York Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka speaks to the media during practice at the Quest Diagnostics center, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like we talked through it throughout the rest of the week, just going through our plan for how we\u2019re going to manage the game \u2026 all of those things that we\u2019ve talked through throughout the training camp,\u201d Kafka said, \u201cbut now that I\u2019m the decision-maker, that will be just kind of ramped up a little bit more, and we have to spend a little bit more time on it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Jaxson Dart in the concussion protocol, Kafka will not be able to lean on the dynamic rookie quarterback, and that figures to take away a big part of why the offense has been successful the past seven games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No one is expecting Kafka to snap his fingers and turn the Giants into winners. He will present a different emotional profile on the sideline from the combustible Daboll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Slayton said Kafka \u201cdefinitely has some fire and passion in him. At the same time, he\u2019s probably naturally a little bit more of a calmer personality. That can be helpful, especially in a high-pressure game that we\u2019re in week in and week out, that calming presence can be beneficial.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Tight end Theo Johnson told The Post, \u201cI like his leadership style. He\u2019s not always the guy who\u2019s always going to be ripping you a new one, but he does a good job of relating to everybody, knowing how to get through to each individual player. That\u2019s what makes him a good leader.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kafka is 0-0 as the interim head coach. But the Giants are 2-8, and it remains to be seen what they are playing for the rest of the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the right kind of guys around here and I think guys will go out there and give their best effort,\u201d Slayton said. \u201cIf this is your first time going through this, you just don\u2019t know. But I do know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nothing. And everything.\u00a0 That is what the Giants have to play for as their Dumpster of a season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2676,20363,15252,9,2683,11,10,22,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-40788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-green-bay-packers","9":"tag-jameis-winston","10":"tag-mike-kafka","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-giants","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40788","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=40788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20250821_GiantsPatriots_CS043.jpg\")
New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston (19) throws during the first half against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n