New York Giants blow it again by hiring Joe Judge as new head coach

New England Special Teams Coordinator, Joe Judge will become the 21st head coach in New York Giants history. Big Blue fans across the world just threw up.

Rarely do I write in the first person, but I’m as mad as a pent up bull today. Did this struggling 4-12 team with a very young, mistake-prone quarterback as its franchise player, just hire someone with no head coaching or key coordinator experience? Of course, nobody knows the future. But on the surface, it appears that New York Giants General Manager Dave Gettleman found a coach that he could control rather than the best man available.

Since the NFL season ended just over a week ago, New York Giants fans have watched helplessly as top head coach candidates were hired by other teams. First Ron Rivera went to Washington almost immediately after the Skins final snap of 2019. Next, on Monday, Dallas hired former Green Bay Super Bowl-winning head coach Mike McCarthy. Baylor Head Coach Matt Rhule then became the favorite, but as news started to leak about Judge, he signed with Carolina. Rhule even gave the G-Men a chance to match his Panthers contract offer, but they declined.

This hire has Dave Gettleman’s fingerprints all over it. I’ve written many times about how arrogant he is and this is the proof. Gettleman comes off like he knows football better than everyone and only an idiot would dare question him. How could he possibly be the smartest football guy in the room with someone like Rivera, McCarthy, or Rhule in the same room?

Does Gettleman have compromising photos of John Mara or Steve Tisch safely tucked away in a safe deposit box? If not, this guy is the greatest salesman since PT Barnum. He convinced the owners to keep him on as GM after numerous questionable decisions and a combined 9-23 record since he started. Now he’s sold them on a 38-year-old assistant with zero head coaching experience.

The general manager wants all of Big Blue Nation to believe that 2020 NFL football is a ground game played between the tackles. Rivera had a Cam Newton-led offense that relied on said QB to make plays and do tons of improv. Their star running back Christian McCaffery will never be described as an inside, downhill rusher.

As we know with McCarthy track record in Green Bay, he liked a wide-open offense, first with Brett Favre, then Aaron Rodgers. Rhule is a creative coach, who players love (his first mistake) and is used to doing it his way first at Temple, then Baylor (nail in the coffin). Obviously none of these men with prior head coaching experience could be the head coach of Gettleman’s Giants.

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Let me backtrack a bit. I know very little about Joe Judge, the man. My objection to his hiring is not personal. What I do know about Joe Judge, the coach, doesn’t reassure me that he’s a good hire. Sure he was a special teams coach under both Nick Saban then Bill Belichick, and the Pats did well in that area. However, how much does New England’s special teams success lie with the coordinator as opposed to Belichick’s mastery of player personnel? Additionally, his one year as Patriots receivers coach (2019) was a disaster.

As it stands the G-Men have a head coach who is totally dependent on the GM for his job. There is no way Judge survives should Mara/Tisch man up and send Gettleman packing after another miserable season. They can’t win with the roster they have and their shot at the biggest impact player in the 2020 draft, Chase Young, passed them by on Week 15 when they beat hapless Washington in OT.

I should have expected someone like Joe Judge to get hired, but I thought ownership stood up to Gettleman when Pat Shurmur was fired. I was wrong.

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