Mike Kafka Provides Update on Jaxson Dart | New York Giants

Mike, how do you work through that with the non-cont for the quarterback? You know that, you know, any other position, you know, tomorrow you would assume would be a full contact. So, how do you kind of gauge that? I know you probably rely on the medical staff a little bit, but it’s an interesting situation. Yeah, it’s mostly just leaning on the medical. I mean, the quarterbacks don’t get hit during practice anyways. So, um, you know, they got to get creative in terms of of getting that getting that work in, but our medical staff does a great job of of organizing that for us. So Mike is the term is he still in protocol per se? I mean all right now he’s just he’s in a non-cont day. Sure he’s still in the protocol like in that phasing of it and so there though he’ll continue to progress through it if he if he goes through the right uh forums here. When would you have to make a decision by well it just depends on how each day goes. Yeah. Assuming it goes well. He I he’s trending towards being able to play Sunday if if there’s no setbacks. Yeah, that’s that would be that would be the fair plan for sure. You ripped through those injury guys. You said those the three names you said are li going to be limited today. Yes. So then what about Kavon, Sllayton, and Adivo? Uh those guys were Well, let me work me look back at the sheet before I say something here. Thank you for the question. Um Kavon is out. We will not participate today. Slay will do some work on the side. And what was the third name? Adbo. Adbo will not participate today. Is there any concern? I I know you had a couple days here with that that we asked you the other day that that’s long term at this point or I’m sorry, sorry, that you might have to shut him down. Oh, yeah. I mean, we’re just going to we’re going to progress through it. You know, we’ll see how he feels again tomorrow and just kind of take a day by day with with the dbo. It’s not anything they found like, okay, we need to shut him down or he needs a procedure or anything like that. Yeah. You know, he felt good going into the game and then just as he was talking with the medical staff, you know, they they made the right decision to to kind of hold him out. been on the job for a week. What’s been the biggest change for you? The biggest change I’d say is just you you’re you know your open doors and open lines of communication with more of the players. Like you’re you’re exposed to them a little bit more often. Um the defensive side, the special teams unit, and then the coordinators and coaches, you know, you’re talking with them a lot more. Certainly a lot more medical meetings and and things like that, roster meetings. Uh but those are those are all parts of, you know, the smaller kind of smaller parts that I was with. um as the coordinator, but now you’re just exposed to more of that. So, I’m learning as you know, each day, learn a little bit more and more and um it’s been a cool process to kind of see it all gets builds together. And then going through a game day process, a game day procedure, you know, what areas can I improve on? What areas can I be more beneficial and more of an asset for the group, for the coaches, um for our game management team, for the offense? And so, it’s just that finding that balance that I’m working through right now. But, um, I’m I got a great support staff and they’re they’re they’re helping me through the way and and showing me the ropes and giving me great advice and so I’m just trying to take it and roll with it. Mike, what have the challenges been in relation to that? Um, to not have the other stuff take away from your offensive, you know, your you know, play calling and put put the game plan together. That’s why that’s why I got a great great staff around me that can that can kind of next man up and carry continue to carry the torch for the offensive group. got great leadership with Shane, with TK, with Gobes, and those guys are are leading their rooms and leading their groups, and I can come in and and continue to be an asset for them and and help them any way I possibly can. If Jackson is in line to play, would Jamus be your backup Sunday? That would be the plan. Yes. So, Mike, we talked about you personally, but what’s your focus for the team here in these final weeks? Improvement, growth, wins, like how would you summarize what you’re trying to accomplish? Really just focus on today. And today is the most important day, our first and second down game plan focused on um you know, making sure that we’re dialed in on our cadences. We’re going to a large loud environment. So, you know, it’s it’s hard to look that far ahead when we have a really really important day today. Mike, um what do you hope to see from Abdul today and moving forward? I mean, he obviously had a public incident and embarrassment certainly. So, what what what would you hope to see from him? Yeah, well, I’d say the first thing is, you know, Abdul, he’s got my full support and I’m, you know, we’re all here for him. our the coaches, the players, the leadership group. Um, and it’s really not I mean it’s not not really necessarily about Abdul, but about everybody in our in our unit and our team. They got our support and we’re here. We got we got their backs. And so, you know, I’d expect him to approach like he does every day. He practices his tail off. He plays his tail off. Um, he’s continuing to learn and grow as a young player. And I’m proud of him for how he’s handled these things. It hasn’t been a easy couple days, but I’m proud of him and I think he’s earned a lot of respect in the in the locker room. will continue to grow and be a great teammate and um and learn from the things that he’s done. Mike with Hajins um coming in so late last week, can you speak to that whole process and how, you know, Yeah. the accomplishment. Yeah. No, I have a lot of familiarity with with Isaiah. He’s been in you know, multiple training camps. He came in um you know, our first year and and had a great year in terms of just jumping into the role from some familiarity standpoint. And I’m just really proud of how he stepped up again for us. And again, even a shorter kind of turnaround. Came in on a Thursday off of off the plane onto a practice. Um, absorbed the installation in a third down day with a bunch of passes. We’re moving people around. We’re going no tempo, no huddle tempo on the football. It was just really impressive to see him go out there and execute. And then as Coach Gro was meeting with him, as Troy Brown was meeting with him throughout the week, then get into the game day and watch him just go execute and play and have fun and really play without any kind of indecision. Um, it was really cool to see and really impressive for for for Isaiah. Mike, how hard is that to do? That’s I would say that’s extremely hard and for a guy like Isaiah who’s really smart. Um, we know that about him. That’s one of the reasons why we brought him in, but it was just I was very impressed with how he jumped in and even on that short notice. Mike, obviously a lot of attention paid to the guys going to WWE, uh, specifically Cam. Uh, did you know they were going to be there? You have any thoughts on just their activities? No, I knew I knew they were going to the event. It’s, you know, rookie event. We have some team events that our um that our support staffs put together for the rookies to kind of get out. And so I thought it was a cool thing. I know it was like a staged little brawl there. Um it was great. It was great to see, you know, it was great to see Scott on on the pregame on the sideline. His juice, his energy, you can feel it. I can feel it through the TV and through my phone. I was watching the clips. So, it’s a cool event for those guys to kind of get out and be out in the community. You felt secure with his safety over there given the ankle injury. Yeah, I trust Scott and I trust our our our our medical department or medical staff to take your great care. I’m sorry. Was Jackson there? I don’t have the full list of everyone that was there. It’s kind of a open door. If you want to go, you can go. That was staged. Really? Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about your offensive line, which has obviously taken a lot of hits over the last few years? It seems like there’s a pretty big Yeah, the continuity there has been tremendous with with our with our veteran leadership, you know, at and Germaine, you know, GVR, JMS, John Ren, these are guys that have played a lot of snaps together now and I do a great job in the meeting room. I spent was had an opportunity to spend some time in the old line room over these last few years and just seeing these guys communicate, seeing these guys talk through their adjustments, talk through their assignments, how they’re going to attack a certain, you know, double team, how they’re going to attack a certain block and it just really opens that floodgate to really great communication on game day and it’s led by Karm and James and those guys like they they want to bring that out of their players and they do and you see it on the field and shows up throughout the game and it shows up in the adjustments on the sideline in the communication with a young quarterback. It’s really impressive from that group and and they’re continuing to step up for us. Given how well that that line did play, how much confidence did that give you facing this this line’s pass with guys like Hutchinson. Yeah, it’s it’s another challenge and you know they I thought they stepped up to last week but that was last week. This is a brand new challenge, a brand new week and so we got to have the same mentality and the same uh work ethic and the same level of detail that we had preparing for that to go run again this week. If the medical people say that Jackson’s ready to go, will you say will you embrace that and say, “Let’s go,” or would you rather be conservative at this point and and give him another week? If if he’s if he’s healthy and clear to go, then I’d like Jackson Dart to play. It’s only if he’s healthy and ready to go. And that’s, you know, based on what the doctors have to say. Mike, because quarterbacks are always non-cont anyway, even though Jackson is non-cont technically today, will you have him as your first team quarterback in practice or will you have Jamus as your first? Yeah, you know, we’ll the the reps and talking with Shay and our quarterback coach, they have a great plan for how we’ll, you know, kind of deliver the reps there, whether it’s a lot or a little. You know, we’ve talked about it and so, um, I think Chay has a good plan. I’m happy about it for those. Is this, it’s another new thing for Jackson, you know, in a season of new things. Um, is this going to be difficult, you think? I mean, he missed a game. He obviously had a concussion. Um, you know, now he’s got to shake that off and come back and, you know, after missing a week and and, you know, is that going to be difficult as a quarterback? I don’t want to I don’t want to speak for Jackson. Um, but I he’s he’s a pretty smart player. He was dialed into our game plans last week. I mean, he’s been preparing like this, you know, even early in the season when he wasn’t the starter. So, I wouldn’t expect anything different. We just had a great walk through with him in the in the offense. So, um, you know, I’m excited for this practice. And again, continue the why we practice is so we continue to get better. So, the mistakes if they happen, that’s great. We can go get them cleaned up. We can go get it fixed. We can, you know, take some positive out of that, continue to build. And so, you know, whatever happens on the practice field, that’s the greatest challenge as a coach is, okay, when the when the things go wrong, how do I adjust and correct it and then get that information to the player so that on game day, they can just play fast and decisive. And Mike, I know this is maybe a little bit of an odd question, but have you spoken to Daves at all since you taken over? whether it’s for any advice or has he has he reached out to you on that? Yeah, we’ve we’ve we’ve we’ve reached out to each other. Yes. Has he been helpful in any ways to just I’m I’m going to keep him private. I I appreciate specifically. I just mean, you know, obviously I’m not asking him, but I’ve been just kind of curious if he’s you know, offered any any assistance just out of respect for Dave. I’m I’ll keep him private. The conversation is private. Thank you. What’s the thought process to how differently you start practices where you have like the special teams out there and then the other guys walk out and stretch separately? Like is that a talking about the Friday practice? Yeah, the Friday is that Kansas City thing or Yeah, that I took that I took that from Kansas City. Um, you know, it’s just a way just to kind of break up the little bit of flow of practice and start the special teams unit. So, when we get into the the main practice part of it, there’s not kind of like a bunch of breakups in between O and D and special teams. So the special teams have like their own practice, you know, they can really organize it, get all the looks they need to, and then as we get into the OD part of it, it’s kind of rapid fire on a fast Friday and we’re kind of getting point A to point B and and getting some work done. So just a little bit different flow. Not that there’s a right or wrong way to do it, just something that, you know, just a little mixing up and I thought it would be cool for the guys to go through it. Did you see the results that you were hoping for by moving the film review to yesterday rather than having Monday giving the guys off? What was the reaction? I think that I think the players and coaches had a good response to it. I’m you know, as we keep on going throughout throughout the week, I’m sure more and more um info will come back. But whatever that feedback is, we’ll continue to evaluate it. And if we need to make adjustments, minor tweaks, the times longer, shorter, whatever that may look like, you know, we’ll just continue to stay on top of it.

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

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