Joe Judge

New York Giants: Joe Judge continues to defend team going in “right direction”

by
new york giants, joe judge

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge doesn’t seem too worried about losing his job. At least, that’s the perception that he would seemingly like to give off. Despite the Giants being on their way to a fifth straight losing season, Judge insists that they organization is moving in the right direction and doing things “the right way.”

Judge’s statements about the future of the Giants

The subject came up when the media questioned Judge’s future and the current direction of the team – reasonable topics considering the recent uncompetitive losses and the general state of affairs. But Judge hasn’t commented on if he’ll be back next year. He’s only said that the Giants are still headed in the right direction, in spite of all the evidence otherwise.

His reasons for believing this? Young players turning the corner, having the right kind of players, developing a culture, and the way the team fights and prepares.

This, of course, isn’t going to win Judge any fans at this point.

The Giants indeed have some young players turning the corner, such as Azeez Ojulari and Xavier McKinney. But currently, their talent is wasted in losing efforts because the team overall isn’t talented and well-coached enough to compete. They may have team-first players, but that hasn’t been enough to make up for lack of football talent compared to other teams.

And the only culture to develop under Judge has been one of losing. The team’s current standing of 4 wins is far from good enough to talk about building a culture this season.

It’s understandable why Judge is making statements like this, of course. He’s pitching his narrative to ownership, that he should keep his job after this season.

But, as the wheels fall off more and more in 2021, it looks less and less likely that a future GM after Dave Gettleman will see it worthwhile to keep Judge around.

New York Giants: Joe Judge has different messages for team and media

by
new york giants, joe judge

Time might be running short for New York Giants head coach Joe Judge to gain more popular support. After a promising first season, many have lowered their opinion of the Giants head coach this year due to the team’s poor performance and Judge’s own lackluster responses that show no sign of righting the ship soon. The response from Judge to the Giants’ loss in Miami on Sunday is one of the best examples of that dynamic.

“There was a lot of things that I saw today in the way we played, a lot of things that are moving in the right direction, a lot of things I’m very pleased with in terms of how we competed,” Judge said, among other things, following the loss. That’s despite the offense only putting up 9 points and failing to find the end zone.

There’s few positives to take away from the recent loss, and some are tired of hearing the same responses from Judge regardless of what happens on the field. The statement brought criticism from Mike Francesa, who called Judge a babbling fool for his comments.

Like Francesa or not, his criticism sums up how a lot of people feel right now. And barring a dramatic shift, there won’t be much popular support for the Giants to bring back Judge for another year come the offseason.

With that being said, Judge has come out with a defense of himself and claims his actual speeches to the team aren’t all sunshine and rainbows.

Joe Judge talks about differences in addressing team and media

“Look, I approach my comments publicly very differently than when I talk to the team behind closed doors. I’m someone who’s very big on honesty and being very transparent with the team,” Judge told reporters on Monday. “I talk all the time about the truth is on the tape, so when we talk as a team, we talk every week, regardless of what the result of the previous game was, of things we did well that we can build on and things we have to correct. We go through that very, very bluntly and openly as a team and make sure everyone’s on the same page.”

Of course, that response is somewhat expected. No NFL coach gives the same answers to the media and their own team.

But in Judge’s case, the difference stands out because of just how far from reality Judge’s statements to the media seem. It often feels like the result on the field has no effect on the statement we hear from Judge afterwards, and that the same positive statements are given no matter what.

Coaches generally want to avoid throwing players under the bus in public, but there is a balance to reach and a point where not doing so comes off as tolerating the poor play. The Giants seem to be past that point already.

What can we learn from this? Don’t take Judge’s press conferences too seriously, apparently. Judge has basically admitted that his responses to the media, for better or worse, don’t reflect much about his actual message to the team.

He’s made it clear that he’s the kind of coach that will avoid going after his players too specifically in public for mistakes, but at this point, it has to be asked whether the players deserve such restraint.

New York Giants: Joe Judge cagey about Sunday’s playcalling plans

by
new york giants, joe judge

The New York Giants have fired OC Jason Garrett, and we don’t know yet who will call the offensive plays for the rest of the season. The initial speculation was that the job was going to move directly to former Browns head coach and current Giants assistant Freddie Kitchens, an obvious path due to Kitchens’ extensive experience working with offenses. But Joe Judge shot down that idea when he told the media that the matter is undecided.

“We’ll talk through it as the week goes,” Judge told reporters when asked if he knew who would call plays on Sunday. “We’ll work through it collectively as an offense and build into Sunday when it comes.”

Judge did go on to say that he has an idea of who might call the plays in the next game. However, he declined to share that name with the press.

“We’ve got a lot of things that may be a little bit up our sleeve. Any competitive advantage you want to have you want to keep to yourselves.”

Who will call plays for the New York Giants?

There is, of course, a chance that Kitchens is definitely going to take over the job and the Giants are just moving slowly to admit it. The Eagles not knowing the offensive coordinator, after all, could present an advantage. There’s no candidate that stands out in particular to call plays other than Kitchens, and Judge confirmed the Giants aren’t bringing in another coach to take over for Garrett for the rest of the season.

If we want to know for certain what kind of scheme the Giants will run on offense, we’ll just have to wait until closer to the game and see who ends up handling it.

One thing is for sure, though: whoever does call the plays can probably get better performance from the talent than Garrett could.

Just don’t expect too many big changes to come during this next game or the rest of the season. Even though a new offensive playcaller will have a different angle of looking at things compared to Garrett, there’s still no time this season to add an entirely new scheme and whoever take over for Garrett has to work around that fact.

New York Giants: Did Joe Judge just lose his chance at coming back next season?

by
new york giants, joe judge

This season hasn’t gone the way the New York Giants have intended, and that especially looks bad for Joe Judge. We’re midway through his second season in charge, but there hasn’t been much to show for other than a late push last year and flashes of potential this year.

On Monday Night Football, the Giants just had a chance to prove that some progress has been made by beating one of the top teams in the NFC. But that didn’t happen, and even worse, the game got away from the Giants and they hardly looked like a team that should be on the same field as Tampa Bay by the end of the game.

This was a chance for Joe Judge to earn some goodwill with the fans, and with the owners who will have the final decision on whether he keeps his job. With the actual result from this game being a 30-10 loss, it’s unclear what the future of the head coach position is now.

A lack of progress from Joe Judge

The expectation for the Giants this season was progress. Many acknowledged before the season that the Giants would have a tough time making the playoffs, but would still be satisfied if the team took steps forward and was still in the running down the stretch. In other words, fans want to see a team that’s competitive through the important parts of the season and not just in select games against bad teams when the division race is already out of hand.

By and large, the team hasn’t made that progress this season. In fact, it looks like the team regressed when they were faced with a big moment. In their past three games before this one, the Giants had 302, 300, and 247 total yards of offense. They only had 215 against Tampa Bay despite getting back multiple offensive weapons.

The Giants were always going to be an underdog when taking on the defending champions, but the manner that they lost and the under-utilization of their talent is what will add more pressure for the coaching staff. Wins against a struggling Panthers team or a Raiders team tied up in off the field issues aren’t enough for a worthwhile season. Eventually, progress has to come in the form of winning some of these more difficult games.

Under Judge, the Giants haven’t yet looked like a team that can do that. While Judge’s first season was excused for multiple reasons ranging from his newness to COVID-19, it’s harder to justify the same kind of performances happening on a consistent basis after the Giants spent big in free agency.

Will Judge keep his job?

The question of whether Judge will keep his job will probably be answered this offseason.

The Giants aren’t the kind of organization that likes to fire their coach in the middle of the season, and the team’s owners have shown little sign so far of wanting to throw in the towel and blow up the current rebuild. But ending that rebuild and starting fresh will almost certainly be on the table headed into the offseason, based on how it’s gone so far.

Oftentimes, if there’s a new GM, the decision on whether to keep the current head coach will come down to the GM. This looks like the most likely outcome for the Giants, because Dave Gettleman has been with the team for longer than Judge and his performance is harder to defend.

At this point, it seems nearly certain that the Giants will have a new general manager. That GM might end up with the decision to keep or fire Judge, but despite showing flashes of potential as a head coach, it’s honestly hard to say based on his current track record and lack of progress that any GM would volunteer to keep him on board and risk setting back a new rebuild.

New York Giants scouted Pitt-UNC game, Joe Judge says not to read into it

by
new york giants, joe judge

Pittsburgh versus North Carolina was a notable game for NFL scouts. The ACC matchup featured two of the top 2022 quarteback prospects, Pitt’s Kenny Pickett and UNC’s Sam Howell. The New York Giants were among the NFL teams represented in attendance, as assistant GM Kevin Abrams was there to scout players.

However, Giants head coach Joe Judge says not to read too much into it. When asked on Monday if the Giants were doing their due diligence on quarterbacks, Judge claimed there were other players the Giants were checking up on.

“There’s a lot more than just quarterbacks that were in that game. We look at a lot of players. That was one of the more notable games last week during the bye week for our guys to get out and watch different players,” Judge told the media. “In terms of our responsibility, it’s our job to know everyone who’s available on the street, through these transactions and the draft next year, through free agency.”

“I wouldn’t read too much into that,” Judge concluded with.

Were the Giants scouting for a quarterback?

The quarterback class coming out next year has no clear number one player, like Trevor Lawrence this year. But Pickett is currently considered the best by Todd McShay and Mel Kiper. He’s generally projected to go around the 15 to 20s range in the first round, slightly lower than where the Giants are likely to pick.

With that being said, it’s pretty clear the Giants are committed to Daniel Jones right now. At least, the current administration is.

Let’s face it; whether you’re a fan or detractor of Jones, there’s little chance of the Giants moving on from him while Dave Gettleman is still the GM. The current front office has put a lot of trust in Jones being the one to lead the Giants out of their rebuild, and Gettleman getting fired seems more likely than that trust running out.

Abrams probably wasn’t making that scouting trip because of Pickett, or Howell for that matter. If the Giants had a different GM this season, that might be a different story. Obviously, though, that’s not the case.

And that might be a good thing. Neither Pickett nor Howell is a Joe Burrow or a Trevor Lawrence. Arguably, neither player is even as solid of a prospect as Mac Jones was coming out of Alabama this year.

Even if you want the Giants to eventually make a change at quarterback, this doesn’t look like the class to do it. The front office probably feels the same way, and this scouting trip was probably just checking out mid to late round prospects and potential undrafted free agents.

New York Giants: “Several” NFL coaches shared Joe Judge’s headset woes

by
New York Giants, Joe Judge

Following their loss to the Chiefs, the New York Giants ended up in the middle of a weird little controversy. The subject was the team’s headsets, which according to Joe Judge, didn’t do their job well enough.

The league has said that there isn’t an issue with the equipment and that the problems were due to user error, but it looks like this story might be more than just a head coach mistakenly blaming the tech for his own mistakes.

It’s not an isolated issue, according to a report from CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora. Several sources from around the league have given their own stories on the performance of the headsets, and it’s not quite a glowing review.

Headset problems are “not just a Joe Judge thing”

Several coaching sources said the new game day belt packs have antennas that attach to frequencies or wireless locations that seem to short out or fail to stay connected, which disrupts their ability to communicate with their staff. “This is pretty widespread,” said one NFL source who has discussed the matter with several head coaches. “It’s not just a Joe Judge thing.” Another coaching source said: “The new belt packs are an issue.”

The “belt pack” here refers to part of the current communications equipment used by the league. The league has made changes to this equipment recently and has admitted to having to troubleshoot problems. But until now, the problem was mainly associated with Joe Judge and some chose to dismiss it as excuses from a coach who just lost a game.

Now that there’s more of a spotlight on this issue, though, it’s very possible that the league will put more attention into fixing it. It’s a bad look for the league, after all, when teams are at a disadvantage for a sideline issue rather than because of their on-the-field play.

New York Giants: Joe Judge doesn’t dismiss trade deadline activity

by
new york giants, joe judge

The New York Giants may be an active team before the trade deadline. The question is whether they’ll land on the buying or the selling side of the fence.

Despite coming off a win, the team isn’t in the best position overall. Some of their expected top performers haven’t been up to the standard, and other players have fallen out the lineup through injury. Both factors affect the team’s needs this season, and there’s strong arguments that could be made in favor of the Giants acquiring more talent for this reason.

On the other hand, it looks like this roster rebuild has failed. This trade deadline is one of the first chances the Giants have to move on from it. Most of the arguments that the Giants should sell this deadline revolve around that fact.

Head coach Joe Judge hasn’t said one way or the other what the Giants have in mind headed into it. He gave a “we’ll see” when asked about their deadline plans, in a statement typical of an organization that rarely reveals its hand.

What could the Giants do at the deadline?

If the Giants are selling, there’s a number of players that could move.

Evan Engram, for one, has seemingly hit a low point with the fans this season. The Giants have been steadfast in holding onto Engram rather than moving him, but if they were going to let go, this would be the time to do it.

Jabrill Peppers, despite playing a good game in week 7, has overall had a down season in comparison to previous years. He’s also in the last year of his contract. If the Giants aren’t going to offer a new deal, they could move on from Peppers now to get something from him.

Many of these decisions will depend on whether the staff and front office see something left in this season or not.

Despite a win last Sunday, the Giants are still a 2-5 team facing a tough schedule. Their roster isn’t at its full potential due to injuries, and even in the eyes of optimistic fans, they aren’t where they need to be in their rebuild at this point.

Sure, the Giants can salvage some more wins from this season. But like last year, it’s hard to argue those wins would seriously advance the team. If the Giants buy at the trade deadline, such wins will likely come at the expense of future assets.

If the Giants are a seller at the deadline, it will hurt this season. However, it would accelerate their future progress and help gather assets for when the process starts again in the offseason.

We don’t know just what they’re planning to do, yet. We do know at this point, though, that nothing has been ruled out.

New York Giants: John Mara and Jonathan Tisch seen at Friday practice

by
New York Giants, John Mara, Dave Gettleman

This season, there’s been a lot of calls for the New York Giants’ owners to step up and do something about the state of the team.

Many believe that a frustrating pattern has emerged: the Mara family taking a hands-on role in influencing the team’s decisions, but watching things unfold from a distance without taking accountability for the failures.

The sentiment that John Mara needs to do more has likely reached its highest point this season as the Giants sit at 1-5 going into their latest game.

Fortunately for the fans that are asking for the Maras to do more, things may just be headed in that direction. John Mara and Jonathan Tisch were seen at the practice field on Friday, and reportedly spoke with Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman.

What were the New York Giants owners there for?

Of course, it’s not known publicly what the contents of that conversation were. Based on the current situation, though, it’s not hard to imagine it had something to do with the team’s performance.

While the team ownership has been patient despite the results over the past seasons, even they can’t ignore that it’s gotten bad enough for the players to get booed at home games.

A message to Judge and Gettleman that it’s time to get things together and start winning wouldn’t be a surprise.

The talk could also have to do with the coming trade deadline. It looks like the Giants are a selling team this year, and a large sell-off is the kind of move that usually needs the approval of team owners.

Either way, it’s interesting to see two of the team’s owners coming out to speak to Judge and Gettleman directly.

Their appearance could mean nothing, but as we don’t have much to go on, it’s something worth noting as pressure continues mounting on both the ownership and the staff members.

ESM EXCLUSIVE: Justin Tuck comments on the 2021 New York Giants

by

The Big Blue legend spoke to ESM about the modern New York Giants’ endeavors as a showdown looms in Arlington.

As he proved over 11 NFL seasons…all but the final couple spent with the New York Giants…Justin Tuck is a man of many talents. For his next trick, Tuck hinted that he’d like to prove he’s capable of a skill many Twitter users have bestowed upon him.

Similar surnames have led some football-minded users to believe that Tuck is not only still an active NFL participant but is also making gridiron history: some have credited Justin Tucker’s league-record 66-yard field goal earned during Week 3 action to Tuck, apparently missing the final two letters attached to the Baltimore kicker.

Tuck believes he’s capable of such a triple…but he’s going to need some help.

“60-mile an hour wind behind me? Absolutely, I’d kick it,” Tuck told ESM with a smile.

Tuck returned to New Jersey this week for a charity golf tournament hosted by former New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia’s PitCCh In Foundation. The two-time Super Bowl champion was one of many New York legends, including former blue teammate Victor Cruz, ready to take a few swings at Alpine Country Club in Demarest, but the happenings of the current bearers of blue weren’t far from Tuck’s mind.

By the time Tuck hit the links, the Giants (1-3) were hours removed from their first win of the season, a 27-21 overtime triumph over the New Orleans Saints. Though New York has struggled in the early stages of the season, a prime opportunity to reinsert themselves into the NFL playoff conversation awaits in the later portions of this Sunday afternoon’s action in the form of a divisional showdown with the NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox).

New york Giants, Justin Tuck, Michael Strahan
 Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

While the idea of the Giants’ win in New Orleans launching a playoff push is far-fetched to some, Tuck knows how one game can change the course of an NFL season: the 2007-08 Giants began the year with losses in their first two contests before erasing a two-possession deficit en route to victory in Washington. The Giants would wind up with 10 wins before shocking the world with their magical run to Super Bowl XLII, which yielded the first of two Super Bowl rings for Tuck.

Tuck felt it was hard to compare the modern Giants’ endeavor in the Big Easy to that fateful afternoon in Landover 14 years prior. He did, however, notice the missing ingredient on display against the Saints that allowed a struggling franchise to finally take a step forward.

“There is some measure of change that happened this week that wasn’t necessarily (there in) what happened weeks before that,” Tuck said. “The coaches and the players know what that is: that might be how they practice, that might be how they watch film, that might be just the thought process that they were going into this game with or kept throughout the game. In other games, they might have been like oh, we’re down again.”

“That mental capacity just decreased throughout the game. When they kept a level head and just said, listen, let’s just finish this in the fourth quarter you typically play well right?” Tuck continued. “I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but you know that team knows it, that coaching staff knows it, and hopefully we can find a way to recreate that weekend (in New Orleans) week in and week out.”

To Tuck’s point, the Giants trailed by as much as 11 last weekend against the Saints before ending the game with 17 unanswered points. It was the Giants’ first win after trailing by multiple possessions since September 2019.

Though Tuck won’t claim to know or understand the current mindset of the Giants’ players and coaches, he appears to have faith in what head coach Joe Judge is building. Tuck revealed that he has been in contact with Judge, who has called upon Big Blue alumni to assist in the current build.

“He wants us in the building, he wants us to be involved. He wants us to kind of continue to showcase what we did and the things that our players did, to have a successful team,” Tuck said of his relationship with Judge. “I think that’s smart on his behalf because we have a lot of knowledge. You think about the guys who’ve come before this team and the success that we had and the failures that we learn from. I think it’s important for us to kind of showcase that.”

“What you need to know about Joe Judge is that he’s a worker…He’s not going to get too high on the highs or too low on the lows. He’s going to go do his job every day and just become like that blue-collar coach that has normally had success with the Giants.”

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

New York Giants: Joe Judge downplays Troy Aikman’s remarks

by
new york giants, joe judge

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge isn’t looking to add more narratives to an already important division matchup on Sunday. Despite having a chance to play it up as motivation for the team, Judge had a very Belichick-like response when asked about Troy Aikman’s radio comments about the Giants.

“I don’t think we really need any external motivation to show up and do our jobs and do them effectively, to be honest with you. I think you have to understand the magnitude of every game you play,” Judge told reporters on Friday. “These division games are obviously no different, so if we need somebody else to kind of get us in the mind frame to play, I think we have other issues at hand.”

Aikman made headlines recently for appearing on radio in Dallas and saying that the Giants aren’t in the same class as the Cowboys. While it seems like that statement was true through the first three weeks of the season, the matter is murkier after the Giants upset the Saints in week 4. Some have said that Aikman is providing the Giants with easy ‘bulletin board material.’

Judge acknowledged the players taking note of it, but had a different narrative on the issue.

“We don’t even have a bulletin board in there, to be honest with you. Everything’s screens and magnets and stuff now. We’re in the future now, so we don’t have bulletin boards anymore. Look, these guys are all active on Twitter and all that type of junk, so I’m sure they see stuff all the time.”

New York Giants enter week 5 as underdogs

Aside from his generally stern coaching style, it’s easy to see why Judge is downplaying Aikman’s comments – the Giants already have enough pressure on their shoulders without an added narrative about proving someone wrong.

While the Giants did make a big improvement in week 4, they come into the Dallas game affected by injuries on both sides of the ball. Wide receivers Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton are out for this game, and the same goes for safety Jabrill Peppers and guard Ben Bredeson.

Andrew Thomas is dealing with a foot injury, one which may be related to the injury that he had surgery for last season. His status is questionable, and it’s debatable if he can play full speed even if he does make it onto the field.

In other words, this Giants vs Cowboys game isn’t quite an even matchup. The Giants are underdogs both due to their record and their missing players, and it seems wise to avoid adding more narratives and pressure to this game on top of what is already there.