Former Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks coach and New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka is getting head coaching interviews
There used to be a clear pecking order in the Andy Reid coaching hierarchy for the Kansas City Chiefs. Typically a young offensive mind would rise through the ranks until they made it to offensive coordinator, and after a few successful years, they themselves would become head coaches.
This happened with Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy, to name a couple. It seemed to be the logical next step for Eric Bienemy, but so far, that hasn’t happened. Bienemy’s lack of head coaching offers in recent years has led to something of a backlog in this process.
Chiefs fans may remember that the Chiefs had Mike Kafka as their quarterbacks coach for the last few years. Kafka was seen as a rising star on the coaching staff, and many assumed that he would become the Chiefs’ next offensive coordinator when Bienemy got a head coaching gig.
When that didn’t happen, the Chiefs were faced with an awkward situation. Ultimately they decided to give Bienemy a one-year deal, while Kafka was poached by the New York Giants to be Brian Daboll’s offensive coordinator. Under Kafka, Giants’ quarterback Daniel Jones has had somewhat of a career resurgence and the Giants have found themselves back in the playoffs after five seasons.
Unsurprisingly this has meant that teams are now looking at Kafka as a potential head coach.
The #Texans have joined the #Panthers in requesting to interview #Giants OC Mike Kafka, source said. He’s picking up steam in his first time in the cycle.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 10, 2023
It’s not really a surprise that Kafka is making noise. It is tragic for Eric Bienemy, especially if Kafka does in fact get a head coaching job before Bienemy. Nonetheless, it will still further Andy Reid’s coaching tree if Kafka gets the job.
It will also create an interesting “what could have been?” scenario for the Chiefs. If Bienemy had gotten a job, and Kafka was promoted to offensive coordinator, what would the offense have looked like? It’s hard to argue that it would have been way better considering Patrick Mahomes just had a career year—but maybe.
Even if Kafka had become the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, it’s unlikely he would have stayed for very long. If he’s already getting interviews after just one season with the Giants, the same probably would have been true with the Chiefs.
Regardless of what happens with Kafka, the Chiefs’ offensive staff is entering an interesting offseason. There is much speculation on if Bienemy will be brought back since his one-year deal is up. If not, the most logical candidate would be to promote current quarterbacks coach Matt Nagy. Nagy previously held the OC role before becoming head coach of the Chicago Bears.
But then who would fill the quarterbacks coaching vacancy? Well, the Arizona Cardinals did just fire Kliff Kingsbury, who happened to be Patrick Mahomes’ college coach…