Giants OC Mike Kafka Offers Opinion on Daniel Jones’s Deep Passing Issues

Kafka chalks Jones's early camp inconsistencies to timing issues.

East Rutherford, NJ -- August 1, 2024 -- Quarterback Daniel Jones during practice today at training camp for the New York Giants. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

The difficulties of New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones might have some people pulling out their hair in frustration. Still, according to assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, Jones’s early camp inconsistencies with throwing the ball are unsurprising.

“Coming back from injury isn't easy at all,” Kafka said Thursday in his first public comments of training camp. “There's a lot of things you've got to work through, not only just physically but mentally, psychologically, and getting over that injury part of it.”

Jones has insisted that he no longer thinks about the torn ACL injury that prematurely ended his season last year. He has practiced like a man who is fully over it and ready to move ahead. However, inconsistencies in the deep passing game have been emphasized among those who have watched the seven training camp practices in the book.

Jones, remember, wasn’t cleared to do any team drills during the spring. As a result, there have been questions about whether his timing is off on some passes he’s thrown or if there is more to it.

Kafka believes it’s the former.

“I think it's just part of practicing,” he said. "You can go across the league and see throws that are overthrown or underthrown. It's just part of getting on the same page with everybody and working through those things. That's why we practice it.

“Football is very fluid. Angles and speeds—those things are all getting changed, whether it's pushing up in the pocket or getting collision at the second level. You're throwing a ball 50 yards downfield, and it has to be perfect. All of those things happen on one individual play. So, you've got to work through it, and the more you work at it, the better you get.”

Jones, for his part, had perhaps his best practice of the summer on Thursday, hitting 11 of 15 pass attempts, including two deep touchdown balls to receivers Jalin Hyatt and Malik Nabers.

The consistency hasn’t been there, though, and not only because Jones has either thrown behind or ahead of the receivers; there have been passes where he either flat-out missed the receiver or didn’t see him open that have drawn criticism.

But again, Kafka believes all that will smooth itself out the more practice reps Jones, who is entering his sixth NFL season and the second year of his four-year, $160 million contract, takes.

“The only way we're going to get better at it is by trying it and working it with the four or five different guys that we have that have the ability to go downfield,” Kafka said.

“I think Daniel is doing a great job of managing that, putting him in those situations with a pocket, with the bodies around him, and giving him live action. I think every single day, he's getting more and more comfortable with it, and I think he's doing a nice job.

“He’s not flinching. Whether it’s the plays, whether it's people up and around the pocket, he's stepping up, and he's throwing it strong.

"Again, he's just getting better and better with those things.”

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