Giants' Mike Kafka raves about Daniel Jones' intelligence, so is he poised for big year in Brian Daboll's offense?

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It's silly to read too much into anything that happens with an NFL team in mid-May.

But at this early juncture, new Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka loves what he sees from fourth-year quarterback Daniel Jones, who is entering a critical contract year — his final chance to show the Giants that he can be a legit player at this level.

"I really enjoy working with him right now," Kafka said before Thursday's organized team activities practice. "He's a smart kid. He works hard. Those are all things I had heard about him. But being able to see it in person has been great.

"Right now, just developing that relationship with him is the most important thing. Out here in practice, seeing him operate, seeing him communicate with the players — and how he talks to each and every group — has been really cool."

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The Giants need Jones to take command and (finally) play consistently well, as he deals with yet more change this spring and learns new head coach Brian Daboll's offense. (It's still unclear if Kafka or Daboll will call plays.) And while only games will determine whether Jones has a future with the Giants beyond 2022, Kafka is seeing the early developments from him that he desires.

The Giants began OTAs practices Monday, so Thursday was just their third practice of OTAs. These are no-pads, no-contact workouts that aren't especially physically demanding.

But Daboll and Kafka aren't holding back on shoving this offensive scheme into their players' brains. Kafka said it's been a heavy load of plays for Jones.

Yet he's handling it well, after playing in Pat Shurmur's offense during his rookie year, and then under coordinators Jason Garrett and Freddie Kitchens the past two seasons.

"He's absorbing it," Kafka said. "He's able to spit it back out, get guys fixed and cleaned up [with pre-snap alignment] on the field. So those are things that I was looking for, just right out of the gate — getting guys lined up correctly, getting the huddle sharp and crisp. Those are things that are important for pre-snap stuff."

As for who will call plays into Jones' helmet in 2022, Daboll still isn't sure. Kafka currently calls plays during practice. But he has never been an offensive coordinator or called plays during a game. And Daboll just finished a successful, four-year run as the Bills' coordinator.

Though Kafka eventually wants to call plays, he is fine with whatever Daboll decides, as the two men blend their offensive approaches.

Kafka spent the past four seasons as Andy Reid's quarterbacks coach in Kansas City, where he helped develop Patrick Mahomes. Kafka said Daboll's offense initially borrowed a lot from what the Patriots did under Josh McDaniels. Which makes sense, since Daboll was in New England from 2000-06 and then again from 2013-16. Daboll and Kafka crossed paths briefly there in 2013, when Daboll was the tight ends coach and Kafka, a quarterback, was with the Patriots in the spring.

Kafka left a thriving organization for a rebuilding one. And while he improved his job title, he might wind up not calling plays in 2022, since it wouldn't be a surprise if Daboll handled those duties for Jones this season, even though Kafka is doing it now in practice.

Still, if Jones manages to put it all together and eliminate turnover issues this season — while converting these early encouraging signs into results when it actually matters — Kafka will get a lot of credit, as he should.

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Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com.

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