DECEMBER 15, 2025 MIKE KAFKA PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Interim Head Coach Mike Kafka addressed the media on Monday (VIDEO):
Q: Just kind of a bigger picture thing, when you look back since you’ve taken over and things like that, I’m sure you had a list of priorities and things you wanted to do as an interim. It’s all done on the fly, obviously. Has it been more challenging and more difficult than even you might have imagined?
KAFKA: In terms of what?
Q: In terms of everything. Being the head coach of the New York Football Giants.
KAFKA: No, I love being the head coach of the New York Football Giants and it’s a privilege to do this job. The challenges and the things that come with it are part of the job. Absolutely, I look forward to it every day, coming into work, to attack it every single day and give our players the best opportunity to be successful. That’s really where my mind’s at, with the players, with the staff and giving them everything I’ve got.
Q: Has anything been like a, whoa, I didn’t know that moment as far as, I’m sure you’ve observed and you’ve been around head coaches, but like, oh, I didn’t know that that was all part of it?
KAFKA: No, every day brings a new learning experience and a new opportunity to grow. So, I’ve just been taking those experiences to continue to learn from. When there are decisions to be made, I go in there and make those decisions with the best intentions for the team.
Q: You guys always talk, and you’ve been a part of teams as a player, as an assistant, as a coordinator, that the spring and the summer are vitally important, right? For building, for bonding, for learning, for installing, all that stuff, right? In your position, you don’t get that. You get thrown in 10 games into the season. Is there an evaluation that comes from that, do you think, versus a head coach who gets it back when head coaches are hired and then they install and the roster is shaped and the draft, you know what I mean? The right way versus your way.
KAFKA: Yeah, this is the situation that I’m in and I’m going to take full advantage of it. Any opportunity that I have to help this team and put my fingerprint on the team, I will. Obviously, yeah, when you have the opportunity to do it from the start, you have a way to kind of change certain things, build the culture the way you want to build it. But we have a great team here, we have a great staff here and I look forward to coming to work every single day. I love working with these guys. They’re giving us everything they’ve got and we’re going to find a way to get a W.
Q: I’ve got two specific ones from yesterday. I know you explained what went into not elevating a returner. But why use (safety Jevón) Holland in that role? It’s not something he’s done very much. He’s obviously very valuable on defense. We’ve seen a guy like (Eagles cornerback) Adoree’ (Jackson) get hurt doing it. Does that factor in at all? He’s a very important defensive player, not really a return specialist, can we find somebody else to do that?
KAFKA: Yeah, we talked about it. We have a lot of confidence in Holland to go back there and just really catch the punts, even if it was just a fair catch, just to catch it for us. We had a couple other spots along the team that we wanted to make sure we had covered in terms of depth and so as we kind of went through the roster, our elevations, the number counts there, it just made the most sense to make Holland a guy that we trust to go back there. And honestly, we kind of went into the game thinking he would fair catch a bunch of them and he had some opportunities to return it. He did a nice job of that. I was very pleased with how he handled it.
Q: You scored to make it 29-20 with 3:43 left. I think that’s a situation where the analytics would say go for two. You kicked the extra point. Just curious, what was the thought process there?
KAFKA: There was definitely a discussion to whether or not to kick it or go for two. We just decided just to kick it and then go get another touchdown and go for two at that point. That’s kind of just – and sometimes you’re in the heat of it, you’re going, it’s a 50-50, there’s really not a sway either way. So, we just decided just to take it right there and make sure when we go score the next touchdown, now we know we’ve got to go for two and it wasn’t going to be a two-score game. So, we were just really banking, make it a one-score game, let’s go score one more time, then go for two to tie it. Versus alright, you roll the dice, if you go for two there and you don’t get it, now you’ve still got to get another touchdown and then a field goal. So, we were just trying to keep it a one-score game.
Q: How did you guys come out with injuries? And with (quarterback) Jaxson (Dart) in particular, I know sometimes the guys show up the next day and have some symptoms from a hit. How is he doing?
KAFKA: It sounds like everyone came out clean talking to the guys in the locker room yesterday. We’ll have a medical meeting here in a little bit and go through each guy, but it sounds like we were pretty clean.
Q: Jaxson said that he feels like he’s being treated differently than other quarterbacks, I guess, with regard to these concussion tests and being taken off the field. Do you see that at all and are there ways to fix that if that’s the case?
KAFKA: I think the intent really behind, whether it’s the referees, whether it’s the medical people up top, it’s all in the intent to help player safety and make sure these guys are healthy and they’re not getting banged up and dinged up. So, I think it’s one thing that the league has really made a big emphasis of. I think in Jaxson’s particular case, I think they’re hypersensitive to just quarterbacks in general. I think they’re hypersensitive to especially if you have been a repeat guy and have had a previous concussion, they’re going to be sensitive to it. So, it’s kind of out of my hands. It’s kind of in the hands of the professionals to make those decisions and the refs, if they feel like that’s something that happens. Obviously you never want to have your starting quarterback have to get pulled out of a game for a hit, but it’s all with the right intentions in terms of player safety. It’s kind of where we’re at in the league right now and hopefully as we get going, those things don’t have to pop up as much because obviously you don’t want to be pulling guys out if they’re not injured. But I understand the intent behind it and I understand the reasoning behind it.
Q: Just to kind of follow up with that. You mentioned how you can kind of maybe change that. Just from looking at the tape, do you think, because it seemed to us, it seemed to me, at least, do you think that Jaxson did a good job avoiding hits? It seemed like he was sliding more, not getting a lot of contact. Obviously that 29-yard scramble I think he got tackled, but do you think last game he did a better job of not taking those unnecessary hits as you guys call them?
KAFKA: Yeah, I did. I did. I thought he did a nice job. He slid a few times, like you said. In terms of out in the field scrambling, it’s not like he’s taking guys head on anymore. He’s picking an edge and at least picking a soft edge and trying to get himself down and protect the ball, which is most important, protect himself as well. I thought he did a nice job this week doing that.
Q: Going back to (outside linebacker) Abdul (Carter), obviously you had to see the tape a little bit more. You said he played his tail off. Was there anything else that stood out when you watched the tape as far as just how he looked, how he was able to kind of take what he learned from film and apply it on the field?
KAFKA: Abdul, he put together a good week of practice, it showed up in the game. I was happy for – anytime a young player can step up and kind of start turning the page and improving. But now the challenge, just like it is for everybody, is can you do that again? You have a good game, can you stack another day? Can you stack another week? Can you stack another game? And so that’ll be the challenge for him. That’ll be the challenge for a lot of the guys who played well on offense, defense and special teams.
Q: With Jaxson, the talk last week from him and you and (offensive coordinator) Tim Kelly was about how good a job he’s doing taking care of the ball. Then he threw that interception and bounced back and had a nice second half. What’d you see on that interception when you watched it back in the film? And what’d you think of the way he responded, because we haven’t seen him have to bounce back from turnovers very often? What’d you think of the way he bounced back?
KAFKA: I thought he did a really nice job. Obviously there was a little bit of miscommunication on the route and throw. Obviously you never want to see that happen, especially in the two-minute drill when we’re driving. The ability, alright, something bad happens. We throw an interception, they return it long, they get points, we go into the half. For really the offense to kind of flip the switch, put that on the back burner and just focus on the task at hand and go down and get a score right out the half was really impressive. Just a tip of the cap to the offense for doing that in terms of just executing and putting that behind them and now going and attacking the second half the right way. Talking with those guys at halftime, Coach Kelly, Tim Kelly doing a great job talking to those guys and just kind of resetting their minds and then the players doing that as well.
Q: Your 2024 draft class was a big reason for optimism at the end of last year when you guys were in a similar spot. How do you think those guys as a whole – I’ll just rattle off the names so you don’t have to think of them. (Wide receiver Malik) Nabers is hurt, but it’s (tight end) Theo Johnson, (running back Tyrone) Tracy (Jr.) (cornerback Dru) Phillips, (safety Tyler) Nubin, (linebacker Darius) Muasau. How do you think that class has done as a whole in its second year? Because it seems like most have not progressed except maybe Theo. But what do you think of where that draft class stands at the end of their second year?
KAFKA: I love those guys. I mean, between those guys, our entire team, I mean, these are guys that we depend on each and every week. You see them putting in the work. You see the production that they’re having. Sometimes it’s not necessarily showing up on the stat sheet, but it’s the little things they do around the building, it’s the little things they do on the field, the communication, just the energy they bring to practice. Those things to me, those matter as much as anything. And obviously, the more production they continue to have on the field, that’ll show up for everybody else. But for me, when I look at those guys in that class specifically like you’re asking, I see a group that’s really consistent.
Q: Eight teams brought you in for a head coach interview. You were obviously at the top of the list for a lot of teams. Is there any concern for you – obviously this was a really hard situation you were put in – that teams might not recognize that for you going forward, that maybe this is going to hurt your candidacy going forward, the results that you guys have gotten? Or do you expect people to recognize this was a near impossible situation?
KAFKA: I really respect the question. I’m not really concerned about any of that stuff. That would be super selfish of me to think about that. Where we’re at in this season, my only focus is on the players and the coaches and getting our guys ready to roll. I mean, we’ve got a great opportunity ahead of us with three games left. Nothing’s more important than this game right now against Minnesota. So, that’s really where our mind’s at. That’s where my mind’s at. Watching the tape, getting these corrections made so that we can go and continue to improve, and then let’s get on the tape for Minnesota, let’s go attack those guys.
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The Giants return to practice on Wednesday. Interim Head Coach Mike Kafka and select players will also address the media.