Assistant Head Coach & Offensive Coordinator Mike Kafka speaks to the Media ahead of OTA 6 at Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
Can you talk us through your evaluation and your touch points whatever with Jackson Dark.
Yes, so you know, throughout the whole process evaluating the quarterback prospects. Obviously Jackson was one of them and the guy that we're really excited about. But yeah, I mean being in there for the thirty visits combine kind of being around in there and just watching them operate there get him on Thursday, I had a private visit with him. I mean, it was it was a very thorough process and we did it with a bunch of different guys and you know, we're happy with Jackson and the way he's been going, but it was, it was it's a it's a cool process.
They'd be able to go through that. Obviously, you get a guy.
That you really like and you really.
You know, thinking has has potential to do something.
You know, you take a shot at him, and you know, I'm excited about Jackson.
Ron of things, and as you know, he was your guy. I wouldn't say it was late. I'd say it was.
Relatively early, just because you're you know, you get the more touch points you have with him, the more your confidence you get, and the more you see him, you know, fitting into your your system and your scheme, and so, you know, I felt really confident about how he operated, how he studied, how he prepared, how you handled himself. And then at the end of the day, his tape and the way that he performed in those in those meetings.
On that tape that stood out too.
In his gamecause you know, you you watch a lot of it. You watch you know, I'm not gonna get to all the details of it, but you know, you watch the explosive plays. You watch how he operates in two minute drills and under pressure, under duress. You see some of the off schedule, off platform plays that he has, and you you know, you kind of watch that together and you put it out, put together report.
But those are things that stood out to me.
You know, his ability to kind of you know, play within the pocket, play outside the pocket, you know, being a QB run game.
Things like that. That's it.
Like you obviously had to wait through a draft night to see if you've got you've got to get him.
What was that like for you?
You never really know how could go. You don't know how how those things are gonna line up. But Joe and his staff had a really good plan. They did a great job and had a great draft. So you know, we're excited about the players we did, add happy to get happy to have Jackson and you know all the guys that we've that we drafted. So you know, it's part of the process, part of the league, part of the NFL, and you know, just another year of you know, trying to put together a you know, a good squad and a good a good crew Greod crew.
Guys.
You you're part of uh Patrick Malmes early in development in Kansas City. What did you learn from that and how can you apply you know, those lessons to to helping Jackson development?
Yeah, I think you know, whenever you draft a quarterback early, you know, you wanna have a plan or some some semblance of a plan or schedule kind of put in place. Understand that it's you know, it's not really a one week or when it's a six month, one year, two year type plan or.
Really for any quarternety player you get, you want.
To see what that player is gonna be, you know, sometimes at some point in the distance six months, twelve months, eighteen months, and in the future, like where his progress is at and where he should be and that way along the way, you can evaluate.
Is he on schedule?
Is he you know a little bit further behind, do we need to like add or some crack certain things. And so that's no different than any position. But for the quarterback position, that's what you try to put together. And so I'm not gonna get into the details of that plan, but that's what you want to look for. You try to put these little touch points on Okay, is he at this point come training camp, you know, start of the season, where is he at with protections or assignments and things like that. So we try to put together the little checklists and the plan for every player. And you know, the quarterbacks are different.
How different would your role be with Dart as the OC whereas with the homes you were at QC where your title was at that point, Just how different were your role made.
It'll it'll just be different based on just the nature of my current position, you know, just being the quarterback coach, you know, you're in that room with them, your you know.
Your teach, your coaching mind.
Just like the specific job with the quarterback versus the offensive coordinator, putting the whole kind.
Of picture together for the cues.
But being in those meetings with with the quarterbacks and explaining my intent for a play or my vision for what that play could be, or what the offense would look like, and how we're gonna attack certain things. You know, just being out in front of that with the quarterbacks and always good information.
How do you separate You have to do the accents you're here to also you know bocsystem and also sort of savagers. So how do you kind of separate what they do with Jackson versus what the coaches do?
You know?
The the great thing about having those veterans is that you don't really need to have to I mean they've all been young players. Don't really have to egg them to do anything like outside of what they normally do, like they're normally naturally just really good teammates, really good people, really good you know preppers, and they study habit. So for Jackson, it's about you know, getting around those guys, seeing how they work, seeing how they ask questions, see how they're in the meeting room, see how they interact in the locker room with the players, the command they have in and out of the huddle.
I think those are just great experiences to have.
And when you have a veteran in room and throw Tommy in there as well, going on you know, year three, year four, like in the offense, like that's that's really good information because a lot of guys are laying on Tommy because he's been in it for so long.
He knows kind of the ins and outs of it and kind of get guys up to speed. So we have three.
Veteran guys, we have a young guy, a lot of great experiences amongst the coaching staff in that room as well.
So it's been a fun room.
So you know, so far as the spring has been fun and getting to learn everybody and you know, get him introduced to the offense.
How delicative of balance is It's like, guys, you know, you're you have an entire room, you know, so obviously we've been asking you about Jackson and a lot of.
The times he goes to Jackson, but you know, you.
Have to also prepare the other quarterbacks to be ready to play.
And I know it's only.
June, but it seems like the closer you get to the season, the more the less time you get with the entire group, and the more focus has to be about playing games.
So for you guys. As a coaching staff, is there that.
Delicate balance of making sure that every day you're intentional in terms of what you're trying to get out of your higher quarterback room, what you're seeing from one, two, three, four, if it's on depth chart or you know that that.
Kind of approach.
Yeah, I mean you the the planning that that's done well in advance of the phases. You know, you talk about it and uh, you know, that's all absolutely takes into consideration. How you script the plays, what install what plays you wanna install, the emphasis of that day Situationally, you look at that, you try to detail it out for the entire group. That way we're all staying the same s same schedule, right. And then what the rookies have that the vets don't have at this time is they get specific rookie time, So they get extra hours, you know, kind of baked in during the middle of the day at the end of the day when the vets aren't here cause they're in a a lot of time. So the rookies get a little bit extra time to work and get kind of the finer details and get caught up to where sometimes the vets, you know, we're rolling and we're going through stuff, so they have an opportunity to kind of sit back, take a deep breath, ask questions, and.
And get caught up to speed.
Mike ru Russ's career, you know, you know what he didn't Seeattle, His career has kind of taking a dip with in Denver and.
Certainly last year with the Steelers. So you guys signed him. What do you see in him as a thirty six year old? Better than that?
You can you and the guys here can turn that back up and making it to a good start.
Yeah, I see. I see a lot of things in Rust and things that I've.
Watched from AFAR for a for a long time, in this time in Seattle, Denver, Pittsburgh. I mean just the leadership, the command. You see that on the field. I think the players are responding to it.
You see the.
Competitiveness that he brings, You see the demeanor that he brings. You know, I'm excited again. We're in phase three, so we're you know, we're working through a lot of He's this new offense for him, and he's and he's played a lot of football, so a lot of these players are similar to what he knows just getting on the same page terminology wise. But he's doing a great job and I'm I'm excited to have him, appreciated to have him and what he's been, what he's been to the offense.
Is there anything you've seen from Russ that you maybe can see better in person versus seeing it.
I'll take just him being around with.
Roo rooms and everything.
Yeah, you know again, I've just washed him from Afar, But being around him in the quarterback room, he's he's great. I mean, he has a really cool perspective, you know, just all of his experiences playoff game, super Bowl games, in season games, late game, like you know, situations at the end of the game. Hear this happens, and it's great for me to bounce ideas often because he has a different perspective he sees the game. It's you know differently, right because you've played a lot of ball and all of a sudden, he can you know, we can challenge each other on some of the games or situations and play calls and just keep that open dialogue.
In terms of in terms of communication.
That's just with Ross, but with the whole quarterback room, and that's been great for everybody because everyone has let even Jamis and he's played a long time, he has a early pick and you know he has certainly a buwload of experience as well.
What you expect the offense to look like with him? Excuse me, what do you expect the offense to look like with Russ?
Is it gonna be significantly different given his skill set maybe compared to what you had in the pastor of the other guys. Yeah, I think you know, when you look at this the players and right now on phase three, you know, we're evaluating guys. It's kind of a different camp, just bat the nature of the physicality of it. Like we're not in pads, so you miss an element of you know, the run game, the physicality. It's more of a passing camp and you know, more speed driven and developing the speed and strength aspect of it. But you know, right now, we're we're you know, we're evaluating our players based on the schemes we put in. We're trying to put them in good spots to get evaluation of what they can and can't do. We're trying to We're putting a lot of installations in to see how much they can regurgitate and give back and show up and play fast and still you know, have a lot of volume and test them on that. So now we know how much volume we can carry throughout the year and know, you know, all right, maybe this group can't handle this, or they can. We can continue to build on certain packages. But at the end of the day, you know, right now in phase three, we're coming together. We have a bunch of new guys that are due to the offense that we're trying to get caught up to speed, but also not take away the veterans that have been here and continue to add more to their plate.
Wield the conversation.
Like in your reaction when Dable said, for at least the spring here, it looks like your call and plays again, what was your reaction to that? And do you think you'll be any different of a play caller now after a year off than you were.
The first two years. That's that's a good question.
I'd say, like, well, right now, whatever Daves needs me to do, that's what I'm gonna do. You know, if he needs me to call plays, if he needs me to you know, communicate with to the quarterback, he needs me to do certain things, like I'm gonna do whatever he asked me to do, and so, you know, that's kind of the first thing i'd say.
The next part of it is, you know, the learning. You're learning every year. You're learning and growing every year. So whether I'm learning from my experiences when I was calling it, when I wasn't calling it.
Other play callers across the league, you study them and their their habits. So it's been you know, I think each year, if you're not looking for that to grow as a professional, then you're you know, you're not taking a step in the right direction. So I've always used that, whether it's phase two, phase three, the off season as that kind of that that jumping point for.
Men length with Dable.
Excuse me, that's that's something you talked about length with Bryan the prospects.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to get into like the personal conversations with them, but yeah, I mean me and Daves have opened dialogue by of things, I'll just end up bicking Evan Neil can be a good starting guardian. Yeah, Evan's doing a nice job. And you see in transition he did it in college. And again it's just like kind of the nature of the camp. It's not a you know, full padded camp, so it's but but there is a lot of fundamentals you can work in the individual drills, the past sitting drills, and Evan's doing a nice job, you know.
I'm happy for
H