Allen Park — Yes, that play came up when the Detroit Lions were interviewing Mike Kafka.
Kafka, now with the Lions as the team’s passing game coordinator, was the interim head coach of the New York Giants down the stretch of last season, including during New York’s visit to Ford Field in November. The Giants lost the Week 12 bout — their sixth consecutive defeat in what’d ultimately be a nine-game losing streak — but not before receiver Gunner Olszewski and quarterback Jameis Winston teamed up to score on a trick play, with Olszewski finding Winston for a 33-yard touchdown.
“It wasn’t necessarily super clean,” Kafka said at mandatory minicamp Tuesday. “But those guys made a heck of a play out there.”
Kafka, 38, could be the mastermind behind some play-calling creativity in Detroit come the 2026 season. But, more importantly, he’s tasked with helping offensive coordinator Drew Petzing orchestrate an efficient passing attack on a down-to-down basis.
A potential candidate for offensive coordinator openings around the league this past offseason, Kafka said the Lions were best for him at this point in his career because of the culture he felt after meeting with coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes, as well as his familiarity with a couple of pieces on offense; Petzing was on the coaching staff in Minnesota when Kafka played for the Vikings in 2015, and now-backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was then Minnesota’s starter.
“There’s some good collaboration there that’s easy to kind of work through,” Kafka said. “That’s one of the best parts about this organization right now … is it’s a great quarterback room. You’re able to sit there and talk it out and work it out and get problems solved.”
Lions quarterback Jared Goff has been near the top of the league from a statistical standpoint since coming over from the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, ranking second in passing yards (21,451), third in passing touchdowns (149) and fifth in completion rate (67.9%) among qualified players (minimum 500 passing attempts) over the last five seasons.
“Being in the room with Jared, he’s phenomenal,” Kafka said. “He’s one of those guys who I had a ton of respect for from the outside. You look at him, this guy is like a sniper. He’s into it, he’s got great command in the huddle, at the line of scrimmage. He’s so accurate. I didn’t really realize how accurate he was until being out here and seeing the anticipation, the velocity, the timing, the ball placement, all those things that go into the pass game.
“Watching him operate has been really impressive.”
Kafka, who entered the coaching ranks at his alma mater (Northwestern) in 2016 following a six-year professional career as a player, still has dreams of becoming a head coach. He believes his stint in the interim chair last season helped prepare him for the role he hopes to one day hold, and his time as an assistant under Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs (2017-21) and Brian Daboll with the New York Giants (2022-25) has, ideally, provided him with quality experience.
But, for at least one season, he’s dialed in on what he can do to propel Detroit’s offense.
“You’re in this business, you aspire to be a coordinator, you aspire to be a head coach, you aspire to continue to move up and help support your family and do things that you love. … But right now, my focus is on my role with the Lions,” Kafka said.
rsilva@detroitnews.com
@rich_silva18
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Why Lions were right fit for new passing game coordinator Mike Kafka
Reporting by Richard Silva, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Richard Silva, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
