October 23, 2025 • 9 mins
Assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka speaks to the media Thursday from the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mike, you look at that last drive Deacson had just
obviously after the interception. How pleased were you with the
poise show to focus and lead that drive for touchdown. Yeah,
it's a great It was really a great execution all
the way around across the board. You know, we were
taking some shots downfield. Guys were tired, they had to
dig deep, and you know, obviously if several guys made
playsing that on that drive, whether it was downfield getting
(00:21):
there or getting the flag. But yeah, it was really
cool to see, you know, those guys go down there
and get.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It, like we've come to expect that.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Andrew Thomas, it's a brick wall. How good is a
lumin or playing on the other side, and what has
that combination given you?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, Jermaine and at are playing really good ball right now.
I'd say across the board, all five guys are playing
really good ball, and it was good to see slowly
jump in there when when jam mess went down. You know,
all five guys are playing to do a great GVR running,
they're battling, they're playing some good fronts up front, and
so you know we're gonna need the same effort this week.
We would say about Jackson that he can go in
(01:00):
there and play at a pretty high level in that
kind of environment as a rookie. Yeah, you know, I
got a lot. I got a lot of confidence in
Jackson and and the whole group, right, And so for
Jackson to step up in that environment, you know, against
that crew and everyone else around them, to to kind
of raise their game and go and step up and
make plays as well is impressive. And you know that's
something that I told him I was really proud of
(01:21):
for those guys to go in there and compete and
battle all the way to the end.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Just two quick ones if I can. JMS is cleared
to see back in the starting lineup.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Well, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I don't know what Dave's caught on the injury stuff
all that Daves to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And then a lot of the a lot of people
outside of it asking asking, you know, why didn't they
burn more clock before they scored with thirty seven seconds left?
Is that even an option in your MinC and you
can is there a way to forego a touchdown?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I think I think it's hard to tell, you know,
a NFL football player to not score at the one
you know, we're we're looking, we're looking to score points.
It's a really good defense. I think they were number
one in the league in red zone, so you know,
we had an opportunity to go score, so we call our.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Best player, Mike. It seems like Jackson really recognize what
the defense wants to do. A guess at the line
scratch which is seems to be way out of his
Probably he's just a looking. Four games in, it look
like you came up to the line and at Belogie touchdown,
check to it on the play. Even a Tracy touchdown,
look like he checked an know to play man talk
about his problems. Four games in, he seems to really
recognize what defenses want to do.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
This, Yeah, Jackson. Jackson does a great job and starts
with this preparation and just identifying the keys that you
know that we go through man coverage IDs, zone coverage IDs,
and then on top of that, it's you know, putting
together a good platform so that he can go execute.
But he's got to see it, he's got to feel it,
and then all the guys around him got to go
do their jobs as well. So it's never about one guy,
you know, I always see it as a eleve man operation.
(02:47):
I think Jackson is carrying the mental load in terms
of understanding what we're trying to get done and take
advantage of the certain looks, and he's going out there
and execute.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Like when you look at the DPI, you were able
to get down on the throat to bow. You know,
from the outside it's hey, you got lucky in the
sense you get fled. But when you break down that play,
what did those guys do well on that to make
to give them an opportunity to get the flag?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Well, it started up front. The protection you know, gave
gave Jackson time to evaluate downfield. Jackson stepped up and
kind of scrambled down to his right, and uh, I
think it was bow outside he was playing Z and
he saw the scrambled drail. He peeled it back and
had had a had a had a head start on
the dB. Jackson saw him downfield and put it up
and was able.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
To get to that in that situation.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
If bo doesn't you know it was starting, it was
starting long, so you know you're trying to get you know,
you got two downs left, so you're trying to get
some of that back. So you're calling a play to
kind of get him, you know, a chunk, put yourself
maybe in a fourth and favorable, and then give yourself
another chance downfield. So you know, we got we got
bailed out by the call, and you know sometimes that happens.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
I guess that's my.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Point, Like we we say bailout, but if you guys
didn't execute the play, you wouldn't even gotten an opportunity
to get that flag. So sure like in that situation,
if Bow had just kind of kept running and not
done his job, don't get that flag. It probably gets
picked in that situation.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And well that's the that's the beauty of our guys
right now, is you know we have young guys, whether
it's rookies like bo in there, older veteran guys up front,
you know, Wandelle like, we have guys of all ages
across the board that are stepping up. And it's things
that we practice in the spring, the scramble drill, and
we know you never know when it's going to happen,
and when you have athletic quarterbacks that could happen at any play,
(04:33):
first second, third down, fourth down, two minutes, like, those
things are going to show up. So the coaches has
done a great job of emphasizing it, and then the
players got to go execute it. And we talked about
the certain details of the scramble drill. You know, where
you got to be, the spots that so called hot
spots in the scramble drill that show up for you downfield.
How how to work it when you're on a different
level than the quarterback, or when the quarterback rolls left,
(04:54):
when he rolls right, how do you fit in the
scramble drill? Where are you and who are you? And so,
you know, we detail those things up and the guys
do a great job when when Jackson has gone up
and scrambled and if it's nothing there, he's done a
good job of using his legs. So it's just that's
the dynamic part of having a quarterback that can use
that can use that part of the field.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
On the interception, how did you weigh in that moment
whether to run the ball, make them use their time
out and still try to get the first versus throwing
the ball.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, I think you know, those decisions always come down
to just your confidence level in the quarterback and then
the players and you know, I have a tremendous amount
of confidence in Jackson and the ability to put the
ball in his hands in certain situations, whether it's third down,
whether it's fourth down. You know, you saw that in
the Chargers game, third down in the Chargers game to
THEO big play. You saw it at the end of
(05:42):
the game against Denver fourth you know, first and goal
at the one putting the ball in his hands. And
you know, as coaching staff, we got to do a
great job of studying understanding in those situations, what do
we want to get to. Are they going to be
a max pressure team? Are they a max they drop
everybody or they max pressure? So you know, you weigh
the options of all right, mac protection, getting two guys
(06:03):
on the routes that are runaways, that are that are
going to be open, and work your two best players
with max projection. With the ball in Jackson's hand, that
was something I felt really confident about just because of
the amount of production and things that he's done over
the course of his time here, and really after evaluating
watching every single Paciti's that he has has been as
a New York Giant, I have got a confidence and
(06:24):
putting the ball in his hands there and putting the
ball in our offensive line's hands and having the ability
for our skille guys to go. So sure, you know,
hindsight you can look at it and evaluate it. But
when we talked about as a staff early in the week,
you know, you look at the Gutta Habits and the
plays that we like, you know, that was the one
that was high on our list. We talked about it
really two drives before that even came up, and you know,
(06:45):
in the form and in the four minute and Gotta Habits,
you know, we talk about it on Saturday night. It's
the same thing. We go through the checklists and walk
through those plays and talk about them. So you know,
when you get in that situation, it's an easy, fast call.
The guys can get up and go and then go
go up rate.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
It ended well, but when you go back and review it,
is there any part like he put the ball risk
a few times there to say like, hey, just calm down,
even though it's a two Madrid, Like we don't need
to go for a home run when it's first and ten.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Like after the penalty, which which play which play reverers.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You guys collided probably intercepted at the goal line to
the post after you got the first down, the rough
in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, yeah, I mean again, there's that's it's always a
fine line of like when you're when you're coaching the quarterbacks,
of the aggressiveness and over aggressiveness, you know, and you know,
we always talk about it, you know, being being aggressive
not reckless. And so I again, those plays downfield, I
think the quarterbacks he makes that decision. I support it,
and he's going outfield to be aggressive. He has a
(07:41):
reason for it. And that's again going back to the
trust level with your quarterback and with your group.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You said you had you had the trust in Jackson
to do that third day the interception play. Of course
he threw the interception. Does any of that confidence Wayne, Now?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
It doesn't. It really doesn't. Just be just for the
simple fact that you know, I know he's gonna come
back and do it again, you know, and go back
and make that play. You know he's done it. He's
proven that he can do it, and uh, you know
I wouldn't. I don't really second guess the call. I
don't have any regrets over it besides the fact that
it got picked. You know, It's it's one of those
things that happens in football, but you saw that from him,
(08:15):
though he didn't he'd never really flinched, like of course
he's upset. But but when we get back another drive
and we're able to get back on the horse and
then him go make plays that he did to put
to give ourselves a chance, I mean that gives us,
you know, more confidence. And then and again in the game.
It's not like we wavered as a as a unit.
It's not like we wavered as a team. We went
right back to him on the first and goal at
(08:35):
the one. So I think that's that's kind of where
I'm at with Jackson.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
What's your tight ends shown you since the last couple
of weeks, I mean specifically Bellinger who had not really
been part of the receiving game and quite some time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What have they shown you since you went to this
more emphasis on two tight ends? Well, Belly, you know,
you know, since Belly been here as a rookie, he's
done nothing but just been distant and his approach consistent
with his play. So you know, each week would be
a little bit different in how we want to attack
a defense. But you know, over the last the course
of the last couple of weeks, you know, Bellinger was
part of that plan, and no surprise to me, he
(09:12):
came up big and making plays and and doing the
right things in both the run in the pass game.
Guy that we're going to lean on is one of
the leaders of the group, and uh, you know a
guy that I have full confidence in.
Mike, you look at that last drive Deacson had just
obviously after the interception. How pleased were you with the
poise show to focus and lead that drive for touchdown. Yeah,
it's a great It was really a great execution all
the way around across the board. You know, we were
taking some shots downfield. Guys were tired, they had to
dig deep, and you know, obviously if several guys made
playsing that on that drive, whether it was downfield getting
(00:21):
there or getting the flag. But yeah, it was really
cool to see, you know, those guys go down there
and get.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It, like we've come to expect that.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Andrew Thomas, it's a brick wall. How good is a
lumin or playing on the other side, and what has
that combination given you?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, Jermaine and at are playing really good ball right now.
I'd say across the board, all five guys are playing
really good ball, and it was good to see slowly
jump in there when when jam mess went down. You know,
all five guys are playing to do a great GVR running,
they're battling, they're playing some good fronts up front, and
so you know we're gonna need the same effort this week.
We would say about Jackson that he can go in
(01:00):
there and play at a pretty high level in that
kind of environment as a rookie. Yeah, you know, I
got a lot. I got a lot of confidence in
Jackson and and the whole group, right, And so for
Jackson to step up in that environment, you know, against
that crew and everyone else around them, to to kind
of raise their game and go and step up and
make plays as well is impressive. And you know that's
something that I told him I was really proud of
(01:21):
for those guys to go in there and compete and
battle all the way to the end.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Just two quick ones if I can. JMS is cleared
to see back in the starting lineup.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Well, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I don't know what Dave's caught on the injury stuff
all that Daves to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And then a lot of the a lot of people
outside of it asking asking, you know, why didn't they
burn more clock before they scored with thirty seven seconds left?
Is that even an option in your MinC and you
can is there a way to forego a touchdown?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I think I think it's hard to tell, you know,
a NFL football player to not score at the one
you know, we're we're looking, we're looking to score points.
It's a really good defense. I think they were number
one in the league in red zone, so you know,
we had an opportunity to go score, so we call our.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Best player, Mike. It seems like Jackson really recognize what
the defense wants to do. A guess at the line
scratch which is seems to be way out of his
Probably he's just a looking. Four games in, it look
like you came up to the line and at Belogie touchdown,
check to it on the play. Even a Tracy touchdown,
look like he checked an know to play man talk
about his problems. Four games in, he seems to really
recognize what defenses want to do.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
This, Yeah, Jackson. Jackson does a great job and starts
with this preparation and just identifying the keys that you
know that we go through man coverage IDs, zone coverage IDs,
and then on top of that, it's you know, putting
together a good platform so that he can go execute.
But he's got to see it, he's got to feel it,
and then all the guys around him got to go
do their jobs as well. So it's never about one guy,
you know, I always see it as a eleve man operation.
(02:47):
I think Jackson is carrying the mental load in terms
of understanding what we're trying to get done and take
advantage of the certain looks, and he's going out there
and execute.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Like when you look at the DPI, you were able
to get down on the throat to bow. You know,
from the outside it's hey, you got lucky in the
sense you get fled. But when you break down that play,
what did those guys do well on that to make
to give them an opportunity to get the flag?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Well, it started up front. The protection you know, gave
gave Jackson time to evaluate downfield. Jackson stepped up and
kind of scrambled down to his right, and uh, I
think it was bow outside he was playing Z and
he saw the scrambled drail. He peeled it back and
had had a had a had a head start on
the dB. Jackson saw him downfield and put it up
and was able.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
To get to that in that situation.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
If bo doesn't you know it was starting, it was
starting long, so you know you're trying to get you know,
you got two downs left, so you're trying to get
some of that back. So you're calling a play to
kind of get him, you know, a chunk, put yourself
maybe in a fourth and favorable, and then give yourself
another chance downfield. So you know, we got we got
bailed out by the call, and you know sometimes that happens.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
I guess that's my.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Point, Like we we say bailout, but if you guys
didn't execute the play, you wouldn't even gotten an opportunity
to get that flag. So sure like in that situation,
if Bow had just kind of kept running and not
done his job, don't get that flag. It probably gets
picked in that situation.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And well that's the that's the beauty of our guys
right now, is you know we have young guys, whether
it's rookies like bo in there, older veteran guys up front,
you know, Wandelle like, we have guys of all ages
across the board that are stepping up. And it's things
that we practice in the spring, the scramble drill, and
we know you never know when it's going to happen,
and when you have athletic quarterbacks that could happen at any play,
(04:33):
first second, third down, fourth down, two minutes, like, those
things are going to show up. So the coaches has
done a great job of emphasizing it, and then the
players got to go execute it. And we talked about
the certain details of the scramble drill. You know, where
you got to be, the spots that so called hot
spots in the scramble drill that show up for you downfield.
How how to work it when you're on a different
level than the quarterback, or when the quarterback rolls left,
(04:54):
when he rolls right, how do you fit in the
scramble drill? Where are you and who are you? And so,
you know, we detail those things up and the guys
do a great job when when Jackson has gone up
and scrambled and if it's nothing there, he's done a
good job of using his legs. So it's just that's
the dynamic part of having a quarterback that can use
that can use that part of the field.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
On the interception, how did you weigh in that moment
whether to run the ball, make them use their time
out and still try to get the first versus throwing
the ball.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, I think you know, those decisions always come down
to just your confidence level in the quarterback and then
the players and you know, I have a tremendous amount
of confidence in Jackson and the ability to put the
ball in his hands in certain situations, whether it's third down,
whether it's fourth down. You know, you saw that in
the Chargers game, third down in the Chargers game to
THEO big play. You saw it at the end of
(05:42):
the game against Denver fourth you know, first and goal
at the one putting the ball in his hands. And
you know, as coaching staff, we got to do a
great job of studying understanding in those situations, what do
we want to get to. Are they going to be
a max pressure team? Are they a max they drop
everybody or they max pressure? So you know, you weigh
the options of all right, mac protection, getting two guys
(06:03):
on the routes that are runaways, that are that are
going to be open, and work your two best players
with max projection. With the ball in Jackson's hand, that
was something I felt really confident about just because of
the amount of production and things that he's done over
the course of his time here, and really after evaluating
watching every single Paciti's that he has has been as
a New York Giant, I have got a confidence and
(06:24):
putting the ball in his hands there and putting the
ball in our offensive line's hands and having the ability
for our skille guys to go. So sure, you know,
hindsight you can look at it and evaluate it. But
when we talked about as a staff early in the week,
you know, you look at the Gutta Habits and the
plays that we like, you know, that was the one
that was high on our list. We talked about it
really two drives before that even came up, and you know,
(06:45):
in the form and in the four minute and Gotta Habits,
you know, we talk about it on Saturday night. It's
the same thing. We go through the checklists and walk
through those plays and talk about them. So you know,
when you get in that situation, it's an easy, fast call.
The guys can get up and go and then go
go up rate.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
It ended well, but when you go back and review it,
is there any part like he put the ball risk
a few times there to say like, hey, just calm down,
even though it's a two Madrid, Like we don't need
to go for a home run when it's first and ten.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Like after the penalty, which which play which play reverers.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You guys collided probably intercepted at the goal line to
the post after you got the first down, the rough
in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, yeah, I mean again, there's that's it's always a
fine line of like when you're when you're coaching the quarterbacks,
of the aggressiveness and over aggressiveness, you know, and you know,
we always talk about it, you know, being being aggressive
not reckless. And so I again, those plays downfield, I
think the quarterbacks he makes that decision. I support it,
and he's going outfield to be aggressive. He has a
(07:41):
reason for it. And that's again going back to the
trust level with your quarterback and with your group.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You said you had you had the trust in Jackson
to do that third day the interception play. Of course
he threw the interception. Does any of that confidence Wayne, Now?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
It doesn't. It really doesn't. Just be just for the
simple fact that you know, I know he's gonna come
back and do it again, you know, and go back
and make that play. You know he's done it. He's
proven that he can do it, and uh, you know
I wouldn't. I don't really second guess the call. I
don't have any regrets over it besides the fact that
it got picked. You know, It's it's one of those
things that happens in football, but you saw that from him,
(08:15):
though he didn't he'd never really flinched, like of course
he's upset. But but when we get back another drive
and we're able to get back on the horse and
then him go make plays that he did to put
to give ourselves a chance, I mean that gives us,
you know, more confidence. And then and again in the game.
It's not like we wavered as a as a unit.
It's not like we wavered as a team. We went
right back to him on the first and goal at
(08:35):
the one. So I think that's that's kind of where
I'm at with Jackson.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
What's your tight ends shown you since the last couple
of weeks, I mean specifically Bellinger who had not really
been part of the receiving game and quite some time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What have they shown you since you went to this
more emphasis on two tight ends? Well, Belly, you know,
you know, since Belly been here as a rookie, he's
done nothing but just been distant and his approach consistent
with his play. So you know, each week would be
a little bit different in how we want to attack
a defense. But you know, over the last the course
of the last couple of weeks, you know, Bellinger was
part of that plan, and no surprise to me, he
(09:12):
came up big and making plays and and doing the
right things in both the run in the pass game.
Guy that we're going to lean on is one of
the leaders of the group, and uh, you know a
guy that I have full confidence in.
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