The New Orleans Saints are hosting New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka for a second interview for their head coaching job Tuesday, while Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator will get a second look later this week, NFL Network reported.
Kafka, 37, will get a longer look in New Orleans after being a finalist for Seattle’s opening last winter. Weaver is again a finalist after bids with Washington and Atlanta a year ago. His second interview will be Wednesday, per the report.
Kafka has no experience leading an NFL team, but he has been the head coach for collegiate showcases in each of the past two seasons: the East-West Shrine Bowl on Feb. 1, 2024, and the upcoming Feb. 1 Senior Bowl.
He has been New York’s offensive coordinator since 2022 and added the title of assistant head coach on Brian Daboll’s staff in 2024.
The Giants finished 18th, 29th and 30th in the NFL in total offense from 2022-24 under Kafka.
A journeyman NFL quarterback who spent time with seven teams from 2010-15, Kafka joined Andy Reid’s staff in Kansas City in 2017 and moved his way up to quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator from 2020-21.
Weaver, 44, is in his first season as defensive coordinator with the Dolphins. He was a position coach on that side of the line with the New York Jets (2012), Buffalo Bills (2013), Cleveland Browns (2014-15), Houston Texans (2016-19) and Baltimore Ravens (2021-23) before becoming the Texans’ DC in 2020.
The Saints’ search has also included in-person interview with interim coach Darren Rizzi, who went 3-5 following the firing of Dennis Allen. New Orleans has had virtual interviews with offensive coordinators Kellen Moore and Joe Brady of the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills, respectively.
Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik has three virtual interviews for head-coaching jobs set for Sunday, ESPN reported.
Slowik, 36, is set to interview with the Seattle Seahawks, Washington Commanders and Atlanta Falcons, per the report. He already has spoken with the Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers about their open positions.
Slowik just completed his first season as an NFL offensive coordinator with the Houston Texans, who were eliminated from the postseason with a 34-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC divisional round on Saturday.
Before joining new head coach DeMeco Ryans in Houston, Slowik spent six seasons on the staff of Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. He started as a defensive quality control assistant in 2017 before rising to passing game coordinator.
In Houston, Slowik guided an offense led by rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud as the Texans finished 10-7 and won the AFC South.
The Texans finished the regular season 12th in the NFL in total offense (342.4 yards per game), seventh in passing yards (245.5) and tied for 13th in points (22.2).
Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy interviewed with five NFL teams about their head coaching vacancies.
He met Wednesday with the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets following interviews earlier this week with the Los Angeles Chargers, Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions, according to multiple news outlets.
The only team with a vacancy that has not interviewed Bieniemy is the Houston Texans.
Bieniemy, 51, is in his third season as coach Andy Reid’s offensive coordinator in Kansas City. He was the Chiefs’ running backs coach from 2013-17.
The defending Super Bowl champions earned the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs with a 14-2 record in 2020. Under quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the offense ranked first in the league in total offense (415.8 yards per game) and sixth in scoring (29.6 points per game).
Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith could be primed to become a first-time head coach.
ESPN reported the Tennessee play-caller has received — or soon will — interview requests from all six teams with head-coaching vacancies.
According to multiple reports, the New York Jets, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons have already requested a sitdown with Smith. The Houston Chronicle reported Smith could interview with the Texans after Houston wraps us interviews for its vacant general manager position.
Smith has received praise for his work as offensive coordinator since he was promoted from tight ends coach two years ago. Current Titans head coach Mike Vrabel gives Smith credit for turning Ryan Tannehill’s career fortunes around last season, and the Titans just produced a 2,000-yard rusher in Derrick Henry.
Smith has worked with the Titans in multiple capacities since 2011 under multiple coaches: Mike Munchak, Ken Whisenhunt, Mike Mularkey and Vrabel.
Smith worked closely with current Packers head coach Matt LaFleur with the Titans and during his initial NFL job, Smith was quality control coach of the Washington Football Team. Joe Gibbs was the head coach of the team in 2007, and Jim Zorn took over in 2008.
Smith, 38, attended the University of North Carolina to play basketball but his career was shortened because of a foot injury. He played offensive line in high school.
This is the second of a two-part series seeking to answer, “So What the Heck Is ‘Integrity Monitoring’, Anyway?” (Read Part I here.)
Even before the United States Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in May, the NBA and Major League Baseball began lobbying state legislatures for funds to finance “integrity monitoring” measures. Part of the leagues’ claim is that expanded legal wagering will create new, greater obligations for sports leagues.
But what exactly is “integrity monitoring,” and how are bookmakers perceiving the leagues’ efforts to garner an “integrity fee?” In the first installment of this series, we spoke to Jennifer Roberts, Associate Director of the International Center for Gaming Regulation, a gaming lawyer and adjunct professor at University of Nevada Las Vegas, who teaches such courses as fundamentals of casino operations management.
Here, to get the behind-the-counter perspective, we spoke to Robert Walker, who heads up sportsbook operations for USBookmaking. Walker’s resume also includes nearly 12 years as the director of race and sportsbook operations for MGM Mirage in Las Vegas, and before that served as the race and sportsbook manager for TheStardust.
As the calendar turns to August, we’l soon see the rollout of legal Mississippi sports betting at several of the dozen-plus properties that have applied for a license. MGM’s Beau Rivage in Biloxi and the Gold Strike in Tunica will go first, following the company’s announcement on Monday of a August 1 launch (Wednesday).
In mid-August, Gold Strike’s next door neighbor, The Horseshoe Tunica Hotel & Casino (a Caesars Entertainment property), will be off and running.
The Horseshoe’s Race & Sportsbook manager Chris McConnell has spent the last 20 years working in sports betting and racing operations or organizations. Sports Handle caught up with McConnell recently for a glimpse into preparations and some words about the wagering menu, the physical property, and an approximate opening.
Mississippi Sports Betting August Rollout: Caesars’ Horseshoe Tunica to Introduce ‘The Book,’ With Regional Props to Come
The Caesars Palace Race & Sports Book in Las Vegas
Sports Handle (SH): Can you tell us what patrons can expect of physical sportsbook space?
CM: First of all, it’s temporary space a right now, and we’re calling it ‘The Book.’ It’s constructed adjacent to our World Series of Poker Bar and our poker room. It’s going have 12 large screen TVs, sized from about 65 to to 75 inches.
And we’ll also have three large screen TVs for updated odds on sporting events. Basically our data wall. And one of them, one of the things that we are going to be doing that’s a little bit different, because we are in SEC country, we’re probably going to do some regional proposition wagers, just for our property here. Within The Book, there’s going to be five [betting] windows presently. One of them is an ADA window.
SH: On or about what date do you expect The Book will open?
CM: We don’t have a hard date on that. I would say somewhere around mid-August. And I suspect when we go to do a launch, we’ll try to do it, a super soft launch like on a Monday. We’re not gonna open up on a weekend. We’re trying to do it the right way for the customers, but also make sure people are properly trained.
What Caesars did here was seek people internally that had some background in that to alleviate downtime and to increase the training right off the bat. Anything they have in Vegas, we’re working on bringing it into The Book.
SH: What can patrons expect of betting menu and odds?
CM: The Book and Caesars sportsbooks will coordinate across the country, so we’re going to be integrated. From a waginerg standpoint, we can take larger wagers if we want to based upon pooling and everything. We’re going to emphasize regional sports and wagering.
We understand that it’s a new experience for a lot of people and we have a lot of tips and handicapping things and a lot more information to hand out for people that don’t know what the lines mean and how to wager. We cater to everyone. Newbies, we have it set up that we’ll have training to assist new people as well as the experienced better.
SH: Any sense of how much appetite there is now for sports betting in Mississippi based on people coming by and asking or calling in?
CM: Well, let me tell you, as soon as we actually put up a few signs right around it, coming soon, you know, Horseshoe Tunica ‘The Book’ … we are literally quite adjacent to the World Series of Poker Room. Tons of people have been asking the poker supervisors and the staff over there. When is it coming? I met with Lisa, who’s the GM over at the poker room and she goes, ‘We must get 20, 30 when is it gonna open?’ questions a day. It’s not so much what’s the offering — they know what it is, but when’s it coming.
(Editor’s note: McConnell noted that Harrah’s Gulf Coast will be opening around the same time, too.):
SH: Will you guys be offering at some point on-premises mobile wagering, which is allowed under the existing regulations as you know?
CM: Yes, but we want to get the live retail stuff going first and then do that. It comes geo-fencing with the property. Well, does that mean like in our property including The Roadhouse? So, define property. Is it the physical location of The Horseshoe? Or does it include our property which is basically next door?
SH: What about the possibility in the future of mobile betting opening up outside the property, which is big in Nevada and for offshores?
CM: We have a long history of working closely with Mississippi Gaming Commission and regulators to bring the latest technology and innovation that is beneficial to our customers and the Mississippi gaming industry to our operations. We will continue to work closely with regulators to improve our operations and customer experience.
SH: To what extent are you guys working with a Nevada-based team to assist in preparations?
CM: The Nevada team will be doing all of our odds. So, that helps us here. Like with MGM, you set your own lines and stuff like that. We don’t have to worry about that. Our thing is customer care — taking care of the customer. Our lines are coming from a team of experts that have been doing it in Las Vegas for years. So, it works very well for the customers. They’re getting the best lines, but the people out here don’t have to worry about moving lines back and forth.
SH: Can you give example of the kind of regional prop you expect to offer?
CM: You could do two Mississippi teams and we could say something like which team will score the most offensive points this week? Like a head-to-head matchup. We can also do same thing with individual quarterbacks or something like that or running backs. So we can do team props, player props, points or scoring. Which team will score the most points in the first half.
Not only for, pro football, we can also do it for college football and things like that. We can keep the regional nature of it if we want to or if people have an appetite for those type of wagers, we can do that also.
So, we can have a little bit different wagers than what is being offered in Las Vegas, even that. It won’t be a whole wall of it. I’ll be three to five easy each weekend type of stuff or each, you know, maybe a Saturday, Sunday, it might be different.
SH: What are you most excited about as you prepare to roll this out?
CM: I think it’s good for the overall industry. I’m in the industry, so I think it’s a good thing in whatever state. I hope more states do adopt it and do it. Will it impact Las Vegas? Las Vegas is so big, people that went to Vegas to bet sports, they go up for a week or else they move there.
We’ve added more people here. We’ve hired more people. We’ve talked about doing it that way. It’s like if they want music or a band or something, well they want sports betting. Once they said we were going to get it, everyone was excited. And once we start putting up those curtains, man, the temperature shot up a thousand degrees because now it’s the reality of it.
So, it’s a good thing that it’s happening in the industry. It’s good for our property and it’s good for the people here. We’re so close to Memphis, we appreciate the people taking the ride down. It’s a little bit different dynamic than say Vegas. These people choose to come here to have fun, to wager responsibly. And so the thing for me, from managing the racing and sports, I want to give them the best that I can. You know, they made the effort, we gotta make the effort times ten back to them.