For Giants’ Kafka, there’s no escape from The Swamp

The Giants should let Mike Kafka out, but they won’t because of how it would look. Losing Kafka in a lateral move to the Seahawks offensive coordinator position would turn over all three coordinator spots on Brian Daboll’s staff.

It would confirm at least two of them wanted out and create no difficult guess about how the third felt before he was fired, for those who still need help figuring this out.

All while the Giants’ search for a new defensive coordinator drags on interminably, with numerous candidates choosing more stable situations over theirs.

Losing Kafka, therefore, would label this officially as an East Rutherford Exodus. And the Giants have to maintain the appearance of pretending everything is better than has been revealed.

See, the NFL is an optics-driven league. If given the choice between looking better in the short term and performing better in the long term, teams typically will prioritize how they look in the mirror.

Look no further than the Jets rooting around for leaks in their building late this season rather than actually addressing the problems that undercut their operation.

It’s conscious shortsightedness rooted in self-preservation and an obsession with controlling a public narrative that does not matter if the team simply wins games.

The Giants quickly blocked the Seahawks’ request to interview Kafka for their offensive coordinator position this week, sources said, preventing a sure departure had they allowed it to go through.

Think about it: the Seahawks interviewed Kafka twice for their head coaching vacancy.

Their request to interview him for their offensive coordinator position demonstrated two obvious realities from their conversations with him: 1) they have a high opinion of Kafka and 2) they think he’d take their OC job if it were offered to him. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. Kafka just survived a second season in which he was frequently reamed out, constantly second-guessed, marginalized and connected to one of the worst offenses in football.

Daboll took play-calling away from Kafka multiple times, giving it to QB coach Shea Tierney for the second half in Dallas in Week 10. And Daboll took the offensive meetings away from Kafka for Weeks 7-10.

Kafka, 36, is on track to be a head coach one day and needs to be in a supportive situation, not a hostile environment. But consider this:

The Giants could be blocking him from Seattle and retaining him only to strip play-calling away from him altogether.

How would that be fair? And honestly, how would that make sense for Daboll?

If Daboll takes over play-calling in 2024, it would be the logical move, frankly. He is on the hot seat entering year three, and if he’s going to push all his chips into the table, he might as well go all-out with what he does best.

Maybe it would save him and turn this around. But if not, at least Daboll wouldn’t have to say “what if?” You could fill entire buildings with NFL coaches who have taken too much advice, delegated away their greatest skills and rued their failure to just lean on their strengths.

Not to mention that Tierney is a trusted Daboll loyalist who the head coach already jumped Kafka for in a regular-season game. Clearly, the head coach wouldn’t mind having Tierney as his right-hand man.

GM Joe Schoen and Daboll could try to do right by Kafka while retaining him, of course. They could promise to keep play-calling in his hands and sweeten his contract and vow that his Giant experience will get less unpredictable and miserable.

Or they could stop managing the optics long enough to be reasonable about Kafka’s career.

Keeping him because it looks better won’t save Schoen, Daboll or the Giants. Only winning more games will.