Usually new head coaches in the NFL bring in the players and coaches that helped them along the way during their career.
Recently hired New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll is taking a different approach. He’s adding the best candidates he can find for his coordinator roles.
This week, the Giants announced that Thomas McGaughey will be retuning as the special teams coordinator and that they’re bringing in Mike Kafka and Don “Wink” Martindale to run the offense and defense, respectively.
Daboll, oddly, has never worked with any of the three men he’s entrusting in these roles. In fact, he has hardly any relationship at all with them.
“I’ve known them, but I wouldn’t say a relationship,” Daboll said on Friday. “I’ve known them throughout the years just being in the league.”
What Daboll has done with these roles is hire the best people available. He was, however, specific in what he wanted in his top lieutenants.
“What we were looking for was intelligence, good communicators, good teachers that understood and were experts in their respective areas, and good teammates,” Daboll said.
Most Giants fans are relieved that McGaughey is returning. He has been one the top in his field the past decade and has done a fine job for Big Blue the past few seasons under both Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge.
Martindale headed one of the NFL’s top defenses in Baltimore and has a reputation for units that have success getting to the quarterback.
Kafka comes from Kansas City and along with Daboll, are expected to revitalize the Giants’ 31st-ranked offense. Kafka coached Patrick Mahomes while Daboll mentored Josh Allen, two of the very best quarterbacks in the NFL these days.
“I think everything we do on offense will be a collaboration,” he said. “I think we’ve hired good coaches, put together a good staff and now – I can’t compare either one of those quarterbacks or what they’ve done with the job that we have to do. We have a lot of work in front of us, and we look forward to building the New York Giants offense.”
