Actions speak louder than words, but saying the right things matter. That’s exactly how I feel after watching Joe Judge’s press conference. To the surprise of many including myself, the New York Giants hired Joe Judge as their next head coach.
To quote Snoop Dogg on The Breakfast Club, “Who?”
Judge is a 38-year-old coach who happened to work for two of the greatest coaches in football history: Nick Saban and Bill Belichick. If you ask me, that’s two of the best minds to learn something about football and how to be a head coach. Judge worked with the special teams in New England since 2012 and even worked with wide receivers this past season. (We’re not going to talk about that part.)
Did Judge become the Giants head coach via the process of elimination? Maybe. It’s clear the team was heavily interested in Matt Rhule, but the former Baylor coach went to Carolina after being offered a contract worth 7 years, $60 million, which the Giants declined to match.
However, when watching the Judge press conference, you can tell why the Giants were blown away with one of Belichick’s disciples. Discipline, work ethic, and accountability are three things the Giants lacked during the Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur eras. McAdoo and Shurmur didn’t exactly inspire confidence in fans and they would be two of the last coaches I would want to be stuck in a foxhole with at battle.
However, Judge makes you want to run through the nearest brick wall.
From an introductory standpoint, (Joe) Judge hit a home run. It’s clear he wants to turn things around by focusing on the fundamentals, finding well-disciplined players, and playing hard on both sides of the ball.
This all sounds great. It’s every fans’ wet dream. However, at the end of the day, it’s just words and what the Giants need are actions.
Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Sterling Shephard, Evan Engram, and Darius Slayton is a nice, emerging offensive core. That’s a good start. Now, protecting Daniel Jones with competent offensive tackles is a priority.
However, the bad is bad and most of it is on defense. The Giants have zero pash rushers. (If anyone says Leonard Williams, then you can count, on me, waiting for you in the parking lot.) Big Blue needs linebackers desperately and the secondary has more questions than a game of “Clue.”
Plus, there’s another problem and that problem is named Dave Gettleman.
I’m not going to waste time on Gettleman and his deficiencies because I don’t want to beat a dead horse.
All I want from the Judge and the Giants is to put together a plan. That’s it. It sounds so simple, but the last couple of seasons have been so off-the-rails that a unified plan is exactly what this team needs. Protect Jones, build a defense, and honestly, just play hard. If the Giants struggle this year, but play like the Dolphins did for Brian Flores this past season, I’ll be ecstatic for the future.
The ball is your court, Joe Judge.
Follow me on Twitter, @danny_giro.
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