Giants OC Mike Kafka 'taking a collaborative approach' with QB Daniel Jones to design offense

New York Giants starting quarterback Daniel Jones recently admitted he must do better about "making the decision to go down earlier" during games to avoid the types of costly injuries that have impacted him throughout his NFL career that began when Big Blue selected him in the first round of the 2019 draft. 

Remaining healthy, alone, won't be enough for Jones to save his Giants tenure, though. New York declined the fifth-year option attached to his rookie contract earlier this spring, meaning the 25-year-old will be playing this fall to earn either a new deal or the franchise-tag designation. 

Former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was named Giants head coach in January, and Daboll nabbed Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Mike Kafka to serve as his offensive coordinator. Per Ted Nguyen of The Athletic, Kafka recently talked about how he's "taking a collaborative approach with Jones to design an offense that he’s comfortable with running" in an attempt to get the absolute best out of New York's QB1. 

"Daniel and I meet every morning," Kafka explained. "We meet early in the morning and we rank our favorite first and second downs, we’re ranking our favorite third downs, breaking our favorite red-zone plays, so that’s just the daily process. And that’s going to help me and him get comfortable with what we like and it’s kind of this open conversation about stuff that we have going in."

Under Kafka and Daboll, Jones is being given the opportunity to develop further as an on-the-field general during spring and summer workouts. 

"(Jones) loves having so much flexibility at the line of scrimmage with the protections, with checking stuff at the line of scrimmage, just with the ability to get on the same page with the receivers," Kafka added during his comments. "Receivers have some flexibility with routes … you know be able to work in different voids and spaces." 

Nguyen noted that, as was the case last month, Kafka is calling plays in practice, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll handle those duties on game days this fall. It's unclear if Daboll will let Kafka call plays in any preseason contests come August.