New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka was a hot name on the NFL head coaching carousel this past winter, drawing interest from the Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, and Carolina Panthers.
Kafka didn’t get any of those jobs but his time is coming and the Giants know it. After all, he is the man who contributed greatly to the success that is Patrick Mahomes and could be on the verge of making Daniel Jones a star as well.
Now Kafka could have another coaching prospect in his sights: head coach at his college alma mater, Northwestern University.
According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Kafka is a potential candidate to replace Pat Fitzgerald, who was fired after 30 years on Monday after news of a hazing scandal broke.
The dream candidate for the school probably would be Kafka, a 35-year-old former Wildcat QB who grew up in Chicago and has risen fast up the NFL ranks. Northwestern has been terrible on offense for awhile; Kafka seems like he could fix that pretty quickly, but he’s not far from becoming an NFL head coach at this point. He interviewed for a bunch of jobs last winter, so why jump into the craziness of the college game at a place that just canned someone he learned under?
Kafka was a quarterback at Northwestern from 2005-09 and ended his career there eighth all-time in passing yards and third all-time in rushing yards for a quarterback.
In 2016, Kafka got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at Northwestern under Fitzgerald. The next year, he was hired by Andy Reid to be the Kansas City Chiefs offensive quality control coach.
From there he quickly worked his way up the ranks. After four seasons as the Chiefs’ quarterbacks coach (and eventually the passing game coordinator) counseling Mahomes, Kafka was hired by Brian Daboll to be the Giants’ offensive coordinator.
The question is, does Kakfa want the college job when there is undoubtedly an NFL opportunity on the horizon?
