Mike Kafka Provides Update on Jaxson Dart | New York Giants

Mike Kafka Provides Update on Jaxson Dart | New York Giants

Um, so Dex, Flanigan, Fos, and Kaval will be the only three that won’t do anything today. Everyone else will be rolling. What’s the story with Dex? Like what body part? Uh, his elbow. Just the elbow from the game. Just being smart with it. Is this the same elbow from last year that he’s kind of been dealing with? Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Is this something like sideline though or you just giving him today or? Yeah, just let him work through the rehab process, get some work on it. He’s a vet that’s taking care of his body, but just want to be smart with him. With Kavon, is this something that you think is going to be uh longer term issue because now it’s three weeks, I believe, since he’s been out. Yeah, I’m not um you know, the timets and stuff like that, you know, not really the form to talk about that, but you know, we have a good plan for him and he’s doing everything he can to get back. So, what’s Jackson going to do today? Yeah, Jackson’s he’s still in the protocol, but he’ll he’ll get some work out there today with the group. Um looking forward to that just like similarly did last week. So, still limited? No, he’ll be a full participant today. Get some work. How do you plan on distributing the reps for the quarterbacks? Yeah, talking with Shay earlier today, we had a really good plan. Um, you know, it’s a condensed We got a little condensed practice today in terms of the full speed work and some walkthrough reps in there as well. But, um, Shay’s got a great plan and talking with TK as well. Like, I think it’s I think it’s important that we have a really strong firm plan and um, those guys have talked through it and I like it. Is it primarily Jackson at this point? I think with the the first team reps that started, right? Yeah. No, it’s and it’s it’s it’s limited just because we got a walkthrough scenario. So, both of those guys will get work today. Are you operating as a field start on Monday? Last week, I felt like it was kind of a change maybe in plan in terms of how you divvy up the reps. Yeah, we had we had the same plan that we had last week. We’ll kind of carry that into this week and then just really see what ends up happening, you know, throughout the process with Jackson being in the protocol. like the whole world kind of saw how you guys uh loved Drake May in the in the draft process on Hard Knocks. Uh what do you recall about your interactions with him and what do you think of what he’s shown so far in year two? Drake’s been very impressive. You know, in year two, you saw him make that jump. He’s operating at a high level. He’s creating explosives, you know, things that we saw on tape and um you know, sure we we like we enjoyed watching him on tape and he’s doing a nice job for him and it’s really cool to see him play that well. Do you you you know you’ve evaluated hundreds of quarterbacks. Do you see similarities? Like were there things you liked in Drake May that you saw in Jackson Dart? They’re both they’re both they’re both different QBs. It’s really hard to kind of get to the that that that type of talk when you talk about quarterbacks. They’re all different games, different systems, you know, across the league really. But but Drake’s done a nice job. He’s handling the new offense and and working through it and doing a really good job in terms of the run game, the passing, the scramble, and the explosive plays on the perimeter. So, um, yeah, I mean, we got we have a really a big challenge ahead of us in terms of the defensive side, being able to time down, but, um, you know, a challenge that we’re looking forward to and looking forward to working today. Mike Drake is Drake is the third secondyear quarterback that you face this year. How big of a jump is that, I guess, for just traditionally, for quarterbacks to make from that first and second year? You know, there’s just every situation, every year’s different. Every team’s a new team. You know, the guys he had last year are different than the guys he had this year. same thing offensive, defensive, league, special teams. The teams he played are different than he played this year. So, but the more experience you bank, the more comfortability you get in the system, more comfortability you get in playing, and the more um you know, comfortability you get with the players you’re out there with. So, you take that next step, you continue to build on the things that you do well, and then the things that you struggle with, and you really tie that down and look in the offseason, and you look at how you can improve in those areas. And um you know, the the better players, the best players in the league, they do that. They evaluate themselves and they figure out how they can get better and you know Drake has done that you know thus far. Mike when Jackson does return to the field. What do you think would be the next step of his development? You know we’re just we’re still going through the protocol with him. You know I don’t want to get too far ahead. Just kind of take it by today but I’m you know excited for him. If he’s able to go and the doctors clear him then we’ll then we’ll kind of address that when we get there. But right now you know just focus on tonight and having a great great practice. What was your reaction to Malik Neighbor’s tweet after the game? seem to really call into question. No, I actually didn’t even see it. I didn’t even see it. So, all I know is that I I I really I like the call. I stand by it. I don’t have any regrets about it. You know, I thought we were aggressive. Try to go win the game. But not so much your call. A player publicly questioning. I’m just curious how what’s your Yeah, I didn’t I didn’t see the I didn’t see the tweet. Talk to him about it. That’s what I’m saying. I didn’t see the tweet, so I had a chance to But you haven’t talked to him about that at all. No. No. Cuz I haven’t seen the first player tweeted. Sometimes it’s like the game. The beauty of these the National Football League is the players are these guys have the ability to express themselves. That’s the beauty of the National Football Players National Football League. You can express yourself any way you want. The beauty of it is and I think any player like I think they’re they’re going to go out there and they’re going to make you know have a have an opinion of what they like to see. But at the end of the day, you know, those are those are the calls we got to make on game day and those are calls we got to make for the betterment of the team. So, as a coach, you don’t have an issue with the player publicly basically saying you felt like you guys trying to lose the game by how bad was I didn’t see I didn’t see what he said. So, I don’t I don’t necessarily have a comment on it, but I just I think players can be you know, obviously they can 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. Hypothetically, did you hypothetically did you talk to Malik Neighbors about that or did you talk would you talk to a player? Would you call him in? Yeah, you’re right. things happen. Yeah, we talk about it, communicate it like we always do. Jackson, is it full today? You said does he expect to go to see the independent neurologist after or that’s I mean that’s what whatever the doctors have planned in terms of the protocol, but he’ll be full today. Yeah. Did he see the independent neurologist last week and that was the person who did not clear him or he did not get to that step? No, he’s No, he’s working through it. Yeah. And again, he saw the doctors that the doctors that he needed to see last week and he’ll see the doctors that he needs to see this week and just keep continue to keep on progressing through. Mike, how do you approach today? Is it is it a an extra day? I know you’re giving them off tomorrow, so it’s never a throwaway day, but do you adjust your schedule accordingly with Thanksgiving tomorrow and then coming back on Friday? Yeah, we we got fortunate enough to be playing on Monday, so we bought an extra day at the end of the week. So, it just felt right to get the guys off on Thursday, come back on a Friday, and kind of be back right into the routine. Does the fact that you have a by-week play into the Jackson equation at all going forward here? in terms of in terms of what it would theoretically provide if he doesn’t play this week two weeks more to rest and you know get right rather than yeah I would just say I’d lean on lean on the professional opinions of the doctors and where they’re at but if he’s ready to play like just any player if they’re ready to play then you know we have a plan for them then we’ll put them in. You’ve seen Jale evolve just from his start. I’m curious what how he played Sunday and kind of how he’s played this season. What’s been the biggest impressive most impressive thing he’s been able to do this year to show what he can do? Yeah, I think I really I really like how Juan Dale has been able to transform from primarily being a slot to now he’s getting outside and having a lot of opportunities as a perimeter receiver and down the field. You know, you saw that on his college tape. We always, you know, we always had a feel that he could do that and then to watch him really kind of blossom into that, you know, at this at this part of his career has been cool and he’s made took advantage of those opportunities. That doesn’t always happen though, Mike. Right. I mean, guys say, “Yeah, I showed this in college, you know, give me a chance. Let me go outside.” And then it doesn’t happen. either the opportunity doesn’t come or the guy doesn’t take advantage of it. Can you point to anything from Wandell that you saw that breakthrough happening and saying, you know what, we got to do this more and more. No, Well’s a team guy, you know, and he’s he’ll do anything that helps the team, whether it’s playing inside, whether it’s playing outside. This year, we asked him to play a little bit more outside receiver. He jumped at the bit and just worked and worked and worked the whole entire offseason and then when the opportunities came up, he’s taking advantage of them. Is Malik rehabbing here? Is he still in Dallas? Rehabbing here. Yeah. What’s uh it been like the first few days with Charlie taking over and how much do you expect there to be noticeable, you know, tangible changes when people look at the defense? Yeah, no, Charlie’s done Charlie’s done a really nice job of getting everyone together, getting everyone on the same page. Really a couple good walkthroughs yesterday and today. Um and just, you know, look, just talking with the staff and just the kind of the cohesion of how the responsibilities are kind of being spread out. It’s been pretty cool to see. And Charlie’s doing a nice job leading that group. My thought two more Malik wasn’t the only one kind of critical of your play calling. I’m sure you heard the president of the United States have some thoughts about it. What is that what does that tell you I guess about Yeah. This is this is one one of the coolest things that I mean just for me being in this position you get the opportunity to make tough calls like and that’s that’s for me that’s awesome. I love it. And like you get it down into the the down the wire twominute end of game when you got to make a tough call. Like that’s where to me I feel like that’s that’s a huge responsibility and something I enjoy doing like being that point person to do that. So um you know everyone’s going to have an opinion. That’s okay. That’s okay. I’m going to do the best I can for myself for the team first. Give us an opportunity to win the game. And whatever that call, whatever whoever it was, a player, a coach, my aunt and uncle, my dad, like I got heard it from everybody. So, and that’s okay. They can have their opinions and I I respect that. Um, but I’m going to do what’s best for the team. Try to do what’s best for the team. Whether it’s winning the game on the last play of the game, being aggressive, going for two, if we get an opportunity, whatever that situation is, that’s where we got to thrive and that’s where we got to turn the table in terms of our in terms of our team is when it’s nutgun time, when it’s timed down at the end of the game, when we got to make a play, we’re going to be aggressive to go make the play to win it. And I want our guys thinking that way. Um, I don’t want our guys thinking like, hey, you know, we should have do this or do that. Like, let’s go win it. And that’s that’s got to be our mentality. So, when we get down there, that’s that’s really how we’re prepping. That’s how we’re practicing. And that’s how we’re talking with the players. That’s that’s our that’s our language that we’re using across really the organization and across the team.

Interim head coach Mike Kafka speaks to the media Wednesday from the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.

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