The Giants could still lose one or both men this offseason
The New York Giants haven’t been a very good football team over the last two years.
They’ve carried a combined 9-25 record over the last two years and have fielded one of the worst offenses in the NFL, finishing 30th (2023) and 31st (2024) in points scored and 29th (‘23) and 30th (‘24) in yards.
And yet the other teams around the NFL have expressed interest in promoting Giants’ assistants to fill front office or head coaching vacancies. Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and assistant GM Brandon Brown have received multiple interviews over the last couple years. Both are seen as rising stars around the NFL despite the Giants’ struggles.
That’s posed a persistent question among the fanbase: “Why?” After all, if the Giants have been this bad, shouldn’t it mean that the people who’ve had their hand in it are bad too? The response has been that despite the outcomes, the Giants’ coaching staff and front office are respected around the NFL.
With that in mind, I want to look ahead to a future where the Giants lose one or both men to the New Orleans Saints or Jacksonville Jaguars. Would that hurt the Giants?
After all, if there’s such a persistent interest in them, it should mean that the folks on the inside of the NFL know something frustrated fans don’t.
It could be that teams look back on the Giants’ offense and saw how they maximized a very limited offensive roster, morphed over the course of the 2022 season, and exploited the tendencies and weaknesses of their opponents.
In that case, losing the two could be a significant blow to the team.
Of course, the blow could also be mitigated by how they’re replaced. We don’t know if, or how, Joe Schoen is training potential replacements for Brown. Likewise, the Giants could elevate Shea Tierney or potentially hire Davis Webb away from the Broncos. Either man could be as good as Kafka and perhaps better.
There’s uncertainty if Kafka or Brown leave, but there could be options to keep it from hurting too badly.
It’s also true that the Giants would receive compensatory third round picks if one, or both, are promoted to a head coaching or GM job. If the options to replace them are solid, the picks could wind up being particularly valuable to the Giants’ rebuild. In that case, losing either (or both) is a net positive.
The flip side of all that is that we don’t know precisely what Kafka or Brown did for the Giants in 2024.
Brian Daboll assumed play calling duties and Kafka seemed more like the “Assistant to the Head Coach” than the Assistant Head Coach. And while we know that Brandon Brown was pretty heavily involved in Pro Scouting for the Eagles, we don’t quite know what he does in the Giants’ front office. The team says that he’s Joe Schoen’s “top associate” and that he was “instrumental in the 2022 roster renovation”, but that doesn’t shed too much light on his role.
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