Change is never easy nor fun when it’s staring you right in the face, especially after a difficult stretch in which expectations fell far below what should have been. And for the New York Giants, who came into the 2023 season with high expectations for themselves following a 9-7-1 playoff berth the year before, the prospect of change is certain to occur inside 1925 Giants Drive.
As usual, there will be players on this year’s roster who aren’t back next year, replaced by new faces, a topic to be discussed another time. But the first step in implementing change will start with the coaching staff, the group of men and women responsible for running the football program in a way that breeds success.
At the forefront of the potential changes lie the three coordinators: Mike Kafka of the offense, Wink Martindale of the defense, and Thomas McGaughey of the special teams units. Whose seat is the hottest, and does it make sense to do a clean sweep and replace all three?
Mike Kafka
Of the three coordinators, Kafka, a hot head coaching commodity last year, probably faces the best odds of being replaced. To be fair, injuries hit the offensive side of the ball this season harder than they did the defensive side–left tackle Andrew Thomas, right tackle Evan Neal, quarterback Daniel Jones, running back Saquon Barkley, and tight end Darren Waller all missed large chunks of the season. That forced the Giants, who had been counting on lots of formations with those five players on the field, to improvise, something they didn’t seem ready or able to do.
The stats support it. The Giants’ offense currently sits 30th in the league (271.6 yards per game), and its passing game, which was supposed to be opened this year, sits 32nd (161.3 yards/per game).
