{"id":707981,"date":"2026-01-27T03:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/707981\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T03:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:40:17","slug":"detroit-lions-hire-former-nfl-qb-as-high-ranking-coach-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/707981\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions Hire Former NFL QB as \u2018High-Ranking\u2019 Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After missing the postseason altogether, Dan Campbell is modifying his coaching staff with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/detroit-lions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Detroit Lions;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Detroit Lions<\/a>. Campbell has already hired a new offensive coordinator. But that\u2019s not all. Now, the Lions have brought in even more help for the offense.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the Lions announced that they\u2019ve also hired former NFL quarterback Mike Kafka to the coaching staff as a \u201chigh-ranking offensive assistant.\u201d Though his official title has not yet been revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Kafka has been a rapid riser up the coaching ranks since his NFL playing career ended after the 2015 season. He began as a graduate assistant with Northwestern in 2016. A year later, Kafka landed a job with the Kansas City Chiefs as an offensive quality control coach.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Kafka was promoted to quarterbacks coach, a position he held through 2019. In 2020, the Chiefs added the title of passing game coordinator to Kafka\u2019s duties. He held that role for two seasons too.<\/p>\n<p>As for Detroit, it\u2019s a good landing spot for the former NFL QB who spent the past four seasons as the New York Giants\u2019 offensive coordinator. While Kafka ended the season as New York\u2019s interim head coach, John Harbaugh has since landed the job on a full-time basis.<\/p>\n<p>If the Lions\u2019 offense can bounce back, Kafka, 38, is a good bet to receive a promotion next offseason. Whether that is with Detroit or with another organization remains to be seen, but first, he has to excel in his new position.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/nfl-power-rankings-super-bowl-030155675.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:NFL Power Rankings Before the Super Bowl: Top 2026 NFL Draft Target for Each Team;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL Power Rankings Before the Super Bowl: Top 2026 NFL Draft Target for Each Team<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After missing the postseason altogether, Dan Campbell is modifying his coaching staff with the Detroit Lions. Campbell has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[6214,146,113,2506,7,2909,110,147,11946,56,6,97430,12611],"class_list":["post-707981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-dan-campbell","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-football","tag-john-harbaugh","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-lions","tag-mike-kafka","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-offensive-assistant","tag-offensive-coordinator"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115964990467861806","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}