Giants AHC/OC Mike Kafka Excited for Start of Jaxson Dart Era

Jaxson Dart taking over the New York Giants' starting quarterback role is deja (Big) Blue all over again for offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.

The tenured offensive mind partly oversaw one of the more anticipated introductions in recent NFL memory back in 2017, when he was in his first year as an NFL assistant for Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs. 

Making his football fortune as Mahomes' supervisor, Kafka will now take a co-starring role in Dart's debut for the Giants when they face the Los Angeles Chargers (1 p.m. ET, CBS).

"I'm excited for Jaxson and his opportunity. He's been preparing for this, putting together a great week of practice. So I'm excited for him," Kafka said on Thursday. 

"I think there'll be certain elements of just things that Jaxson has done well, whether he was in college or in high school. You want to fit the system to that player, any player, really, to what their strengths are. So I think Jaxson is going to do a nice job, and we'll put together a plan that he can work with."

There's a little more immediately at stake for Kafka and Co. when Dart takes the field on Sunday. Whereas Mahomes' first foray was in a mostly meaningless Week 17 game, one that was quickly overshadowed by a playoff trip witnessed by several names that still wear red today, Dart's progress could shape how the Giants look in both this season and beyond.

Sunday's start won't be Dart's official maiden voyage, as he has had a handful of snaps amidst the Giants' fruitless opening trio. Anticipation over the Dart era has nonetheless reached a summit thanks to a sterling preseason that generated some of the most consistent offensive outputs the Giants have had in any arena in this new decade.

It's Dart's preparation off the field, however, that has Kafka particularly excited, as the offensive overseer lauded the "attentive" rookie's dedication to making his career all "about the extra work."

"You saw him in the meeting rooms, you see him on the practice field doing the scout team reps, and you can really take a lot from that, just how he's operating as a leader on the team and in the huddle," Kafka said. 

"You’ve obviously got to go out there and play. He did it in the preseason. Now it's the regular season, so every single level, things start speeding up and ramping up for him. But he's been very productive as a player, and I'm excited to see him go out there and roll it."

"Jaxson has a lot of confidence, and I think that's good," Kafka added. "That's what you want in a quarterback room. That's what you want in a quarterback. Swagger, confidence, I think they're kind of one and the same. How you want to define it, I just think Jaxson has that."

On the scoreboard, history is on Dart's side when it comes to his first showing with the full-time top unit: since 1950, four of the five first-round quarterbacks the Giants have chosen (Travis Tidwell, Phil Simms, Dave Brown, Daniel Jones) earned a win in their blue debut—and things turned out pretty well for the outlier (Eli Manning) despite defeat.