Development is not only about the college players invited to take part in the upcoming events in Mobile, Alabama and Frisco, Texas. What will transpire with a few members of Brian Daboll’s coaching staff could in some way shape what Daboll will work with in 2024 with the Giants.
There is already plenty of change brewing, with Daboll in the early stages of filling what turned out to be seven openings on his staff. Four of them were the result of firings, two assistants left the Giants for other positions in the college ranks and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale parted ways with the franchise with an ugly departure.
Two top-tier assistants who remain on Daboll’s staff, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney, will soon be busy fulfilling responsibilities that should provide a glimpse into what they both hope comes next for them. Kafka will serve as the head coach of the West team in the East-West Shrine Bowl game, to be played Feb. 1 at the Ford Center at The Star, which is the Cowboys practice complex in Frisco, Texas.
Tierney will serve as the offensive coordinator for the National team in the Senior Bowl, to be played Feb. 3 at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the campus of the University of South Alabama. Mike Adams, the Giants’ assistant special teams coach, will serve as the special teams coordinator for the American squad.
These assignments will give Kafka, Tierney and Adams behind-the-scenes access during practices and meetings to many players who will eventually make their way onto the Giants’ prospects board in advance of the 2024 draft. Extra intel is never a bad thing.
It will also allow Kafka to run a team and for Tierney and Adams to expand beyond their current roles as position coaches.
“This is an opportunity to further develop, evaluate and showcase our assistant coaches who may be our next generation of head coaches,” Troy Vincent, the NFL executive vice president of football operations, said of the East-West Shrine Bowl coaching opportunities.
This is the second year the Senior Bowl is implementing a “Coach Up’’ format, allowing coaches to assume elevated roles. Titans assistant head coach/defensive line coach Terrell Williams will be the head coach of the American team and Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will coach the National team.
This is a nice bit of symmetry for Kafka. As a former Northwestern quarterback, he was named the East-West Shrine game MVP in 2010 and then became a fourth-round pick of the Eagles. Kafka, 36, was a hit last season in his first year as an NFL coordinator and the attention he garnered led to four teams interviewing him for their head coaching position. The Giants’ offense took a nosedive in 2023 but that did not stop two teams with head coaching vacancies, the Seahawks and Titans, from speaking with Kafka about their openings.
The Giants have no intention of moving on from Kafka. If he gets a head coaching gig, of course he will depart. It will be interesting to see what happens if there is outside interest in hiring Kafka as an offensive coordinator and if Kafka is piqued by that interest. There were times this past season when Daboll got more involved in the offense and the play-calling, and Daboll did not state unequivocally that Kafka will continue to call the plays in 2024.
“Those are conversations we’ll have here over the next few months, what direction we’ll go and we’ll make those decisions as we do a full evaluation,’’ Daboll said after the Giants wrapped up their 6-11 season.
Kafka could view an opportunity with another team as beneficial to his coaching career. Or he could return and wait and see what Daboll has in store for him.
Tierney, 37, has never been a play-caller but everyone has to start somewhere and he could be in line for a promotion to offensive coordinator if Kafka leaves. Daboll and Tierney have a history together, linking up for the first time in 2017 at Alabama, when Daboll was the offensive coordinator and Tierney was an offensive assistant on Nick Saban’s staff.
Daboll brought Tierney with him to Buffalo in 2018 and to the Giants in 2022. Tierney’s attention to detail helped Daniel Jones put together the best season of his career, landing Jones a four-year contract worth $160 million. Tierney this past season helped get undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito up to speed and DeVito responded by winning three consecutive games — throwing five touchdown passes and no interceptions in that streak.