Brian Daboll appears ready to hand Giants play calling duties back to Mike Kafta

Russell Wilson was speaking about his new head coach, Brian Daboll, and how it has been learning a new offense and working this summer to figure out what Daboll wants from his starting quarterback.

“Daboll’s got a beautiful mind, how he sees the game,’’ Wilson said Wednesday after practice.

It sure looks as if that beautiful mind is going to once again cede the play calling to Mike Kafka, the offensive coordinator who was relieved of those duties for last season’s offensive malaise.

Daboll all spring and training camp has entrusted that responsibility to Kafka, and it would make no sense, after all that, for Daboll to head into his fourth year with the Giants and reclaim the duties.

“I think Kaf is a really brilliant mind, too,’’ Wilson said.

The Giants need all the beauty and brilliance they can round up as they continue their Holy Grail quest to find a competent attack. Daboll arrived in 2022 and did what general manager Joe Schoen preferred, designating Kafka — a first-time coordinator — as the play-caller.

The offense was careful, and ran the ball with Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones, averaging 21.5 points a game, 16th in the NFL. Nothing special, but also nothing embarrassing.

Kafka called the plays for most of the 2023 season as Jones went down to a torn ACL and everything unraveled. Daboll took over as play-caller late in that season as the Giants averaged 15.6 points, 30th in the league. Daboll retained the duties for the entire 2024 season, and the Giants averaged 16.1 points — only the Browns scored fewer points.

There has been no announcement and nothing official as to who will call the plays this season, but all signs point to Kafka.

Once again, this is fine with the front office, as Schoen believes the job of a head coach is all-encompassing and best performed if the person in charge does not have his face buried in a play sheet.

If Daboll is not calling the plays, he can spend less time in the offensive meeting room and more time in any other room he feels needs his attention.

“Yeah, the first couple years I did that,’’ Daboll said of having Kafka call the plays. “Last year, I kind of handled the scripts and things like that. Mike’s done a fantastic job. We all work together like we have since we’ve been here. But yeah, I’m pretty active in every area, which I need to be. And I’ll continue to do that.’’

Kafka, 38, is at an interesting point in his career. He garnered serious head coach interest after the 2022 season and has continued to be sought after for interviews. This time around, the offensive play-caller gets the seasoned, savvy Wilson as the starting quarterback — a 36-year old entering his 14th NFL season, arriving with well-established practice and preparation habits.

“Just opening up the open lines of communication, having dialogue on plays that he likes, things that I like,’’ Kafka said.

Wilson is a relentless and boisterous communicator, and he has no problem making sure those around him know what he wants. Kafka — a former quarterback at Northwestern and at various NFL stops, mostly on practice squads — can relate to someone nearly his own age.

“Obviously Kaf’s played the game, played the position, he sees it like a quarterback and he’s got a great viewpoint of the game,’’ Wilson said. “The ability to share ideas, the collaboration, is really special here. How they do it and how we do it together, it’s been a lot of fun.’’

There were times in the past when Daboll would have been more aggressive with a call than Kafka was. If the offensive line holds up, Kafka — a product of the Andy Reid coaching tree from their years together with the Chiefs — should be able to instigate pushing the ball down the field, given Wilson’s penchant for deep passing, and Malik Nabers, Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson running routes.

“I think as a coach, every year you have to learn and grow, whether it’s from past experiences, from other guys around the league,’’ Kafka said, “so you just continue to dive into that and see what’s in your comfort level, how you can be more aggressive in certain situations, how you can look at different situations throughout the game and how certain teams attack it.’’

Nabers as a rookie could not hide his frustration, despite his individual success, after so many games went the wrong way and so many offensive series went sideways.

He seems relieved to have Wilson running the show and happy that he is having increased input with the offensive thought process.

“Dabes has been around also and Kaf has been tremendous calling plays,’’ Nabers said. “Hopefully when the season starts we’re able to keep on rolling and continue to get good plays called and get guys in good space and get the playmakers the ball and an explosive offense.’’

That is Kafka’s job now.