New York Giants Fire Joe Judge

Joe Judge of the New York Giants

Joe Judge is no longer the coach of the New York Giants. Judge was relieved of his duties as head coach late Tuesday afternoon.

As someone who has criticized Judge on this website ad nauseam, I can honestly say I’m shocked with this decision because for the first time in a while, the Giants did the right thing. The Giants did not take a half measure. Somewhere, the ghost of Mike Ehrmantraut is smiling.

Judge compiled a 10-23 record over two seasons as head coach. After making strides with the team last season and building something that resembled a culture, Judge took seven steps back in year two. The Giants ranked 31st in the NFL in both points and yards per game. For those who are not good at math, there are only 32 teams in the league. On the defensive side of the ball, which was the team’s strength in 2020, the Giants dropped from 9th in team defense all the way to 23rd according to Pro Football Reference.

It’s not what you want to see out of your second-year coach.

I drank the kool-aid last season. I wanted to run through a brick wall after Judge’s press conference. He said all the right things, which won me over instantly. Perhaps the disciplinarian was exactly who the Giants needed to run the ship.

I learned this year, Week 2 against the WFT to be exact, that the “hardo schtick” only works when you win games. The loss to the WFT on the final play of the game was my heel turn. For a recent reference, it was my red pill moment.

Much to my dismay, Adam Schefter reported the Giants were bringing back Judge and Daniel Jones in 2022 in late December.

After defeating the Eagles on Nov. 28, the Giants had six games remaining on their schedule. It’s unfair to grade this team strictly on wins and losses because of the injuries and talent disparity. However, that’s no excuse to get embarrassed.

Make no mistake, the Giants were embarrassed in six straight games to end the season.

This is solely my opinion, but if Judge just took his lumps and made no excuses, the team would have brought him back for the third year. The press conference after the Chicago loss sealed his fate.

Excuse after excuse after excuse. Who wants to play for the Giants that’s not here? Seriously. Even if that is true, and I don’t believe it to be, it’s so outlandish that it should be kept to oneself.

If the press conference didn’t do him in, then this play was the icing on the cake.

This wasn’t all Judge’s fault. It starts at the top with John Mara, who hired Dave Gettleman to build a winning team. Under Gettleman’s regime, the team went 19–46 which was good enough for the worst record in the NFL. Gettleman also put the team in cap hell for 2022.

Thank you, Dave.

But, the Giants did the right thing. They forced Gettleman to retire, fired Judge, and requested to interview some really smart guys outside of the organization. This is the right way to build a team. Get the GM and coach on the same page. Then, get your QB and build the rest of the team.

Brian Flores, Jim Harbaugh, and Doug Pederson would be my top 3 candidates. If the Giants land one of those coaches, I’ll be a happy fan for the first time in years.

The Giants have a long way to go, but today was finally a step in the right direction.

Do you agree with firing Joe Judge? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or tweet me, @danny_giro.

Giants Fans, We Have Hit Rock Bottom

New York Giants / NFL

When determining the state of the New York Giants franchise, I keep returning to a quote from Netflix’s hit teen show, Outer Banks. The show’s protagonist, John B, recalled an old saying that his father told him as a kid.

John B said, “My old man used to tell me it’s best to never say you’ve hit rock bottom. Trust me, he said, ‘you can always go lower.'”

After Sunday’s 34-10 loss to the Eagles, the Giants have hit rock bottom. The loss perfectly outlined the Giants’ problems since 2017. Inconsistency at quarterback, below-average offensive line play, unoriginal offensive gameplans, a nonexistent pass rush, and an uninspiring coaching staff top the list of deficiencies for Big Blue. These are some of the many reasons why the Giants are tied with the Jets (go figure) for the worst record since 2017 (22-57).

Before diving into Daniel Jones’s tenure, let’s talk about Jake Fromm and Mike Glennon. Fromm gave one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen in the NFL, finishing the day 6/17 for 25 yards with 1 INT and a QBR of 19.5. Mike Glennon, who was benched last week, took over for Fromm in the second half and went 17/27 for 93 yards with 1 TD, 1 INT, and a QBR of 65.8.

Full disclosure, I wanted Fromm to start over Glennon to see if the former Georgia QB could be a future backup for this team. The answer is no.

It’s not that the Giants just lost to the Eagles. They were embarrassed. The offense scored 3 points for three and a half quarters and accumulated just 192 total yards. The stunning part is the Giants won the time of possession battle and ran more offensive plays. But when your offense is more basic than vanilla ice cream, it’s not hard for opposing defenses to prepare.

On the defensive side, the front-7 couldn’t sack the quarterback even if the offense used tackling dummies to block. The saving grace all year has been Patrick Graham and the secondary. At least Graham’s playcalling and the back four give the team a chance to compete on a weekly basis.

The once-proud organization that won two Super Bowls in four years now fosters a system of losing and dysfunction. The blame starts at the top with John Mara. The Giants’ owner is reportedly tired of losing and wants to get a team on the right path again, but he’s failed to recognize the mistake that put the team in this very situation.

The day Mara hired Dave Gettleman to be the general manager will go down as one of the top five worst decisions in franchise history.

For every good decision from Gettleman, and it’s only a few, five bad ones follow. It all started when the team drafted Saquon Barkley with the number two pick. I know not to draft a running back in the top 5. You know not to draft a running back in the top 5. Even my mother would never make this mistake and yet, the Giants took Barkley instead of choosing Eli’s successor. Now, Barkley looks like a shell of himself and remains the furthest thing from a team leader.

After signing and then trading Odell Beckham Jr., Gettleman drafted Daniel Jones to take Manning’s place at quarterback.

There’s a popular video where a middle-aged man walks up to the camera and says, “You’re not that guy, pal. Trust me. You’re not that guy.” That’s the best way to describe Jones. At times, Jones will flash his athletic prowess and scramble for a 50-yard run. He’ll typically then follow it up with an overthrow on a check down. That’s the DJ experience. He’s average at best with a low ceiling and severe limitations on what he can do in terms of throwing the ball. Jones also smears his hands with popcorn butter before every possession as he leads the NFL in fumbles since 2019 with 36 (!).

Do you know who else isn’t “the guy?” Joe Judge. After every Giants game, I ask myself one question. What is Joe Judge good at? Judge was a former special teams coach, and yet that unit only ranks 14th in the NFL. The Giants are ATROCIOUS (deserved an all-caps) in the last two minutes before the half, having been outscored 68-0. I joke that Judge is the biggest “undisciplined disciplinarian” because the team continues to falter in big spots especially in close games. I spoke more about my problems with Judge, who owns a 10-21 record, after a Week 2 loss against the WFT.

I can go on and on about Gettleman’s acquisitions. For every Blake Martinez and James Bradberry, there’s a Golden Tate, Nate Solder, and Will Hernandez. Despite all of these mistakes, Mara still deserves the most blame because he empowered Gettleman.

Losing organizations build teams the wrong way. Yesterday’s report that Judge and Jones will be returning for 2022 appears in the first couple chapters in the book on how to build a losing team.

I’m upset, but I’m not furious that the Giants decided to run it back with Judge and Jones. I don’t agree, but there are arguments to be made to keep both. However, all signs point towards Gettleman being fired at the end of the season. The right move would be to bring in a new GM first to discuss the future of the coach and QB with ownership, two of the most important aspects of a winning team. If you take away that decision from the GM, what is the point of hiring an outside voice? No GM wants these decisions made for them, which leads me to believe the Giants may promote an executive within the organization to GM. Why get a new voice to build a team the right way when you can promote someone who has been a part of the losing culture? In other words, it’s the worst-case scenario.

John B was right. Giants fans, we might go lower than rock bottom.

Do you agree that this is rock bottom for the Giants? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or tweet me, @danny_giro.

The Joe Judge Experiment Has Gone Haywire

Joe Judge New York Giants

When Joe Judge was hired by the New York Giants in 2020 to be their next head coach, he said all the right things at the opening press conference. Discipline, work ethic, and accountability were three characteristics that Judge prided himself on. Even though he lacked experience as a head coach or offensive/defensive coordinator, Judge appeared to bring a sense of hard work and energy that the Giants desperately lacked under Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur.

I wrote this last year after the Judge’s hire.

“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.”

Throughout last season, I believed in and defended Judge from a coaching perspective. Although the NFC East was atrocious, the Giants still had a chance to somehow sneak into the playoffs at 6-10. That’s nothing to brag home about, but the team was playing hard especially on the defensive side of the ball.

The bar is extremely low to give credit to a professional team for “playing hard,” but this is the Giants, a team with the 27-54 record since 2016.

The “Ra-Ra, win one for the Gipper” act only works if you win games. Guess what? Not only are the Giants failing to win, but they’re devastatingly losing close games. Saying the right things matters, but actions speak louder than words. I started to sour on Judge after the brutal loss to the Washington Football Team after a mistake on special teams cost the Giants the game.

The Giants followed up that game with three losses in their next four games. The Giants faltered down the stretch to the Falcons, never stood a chance against the Cowboys, and embarrassed themselves against the Rams.

Did I expect the Giants to win all three of those games? No, but the product on the field doesn’t match what Judge is preaching. There seems to be no accountability or discipline as the Giants have the 10th most penalties in the NFL. But hey, at least the team had to run laps after a game as punishment.

If you couldn’t tell, I’ve lost patience with Judge and his shtick. If you have to challenge players six weeks into the season to “join in the fight,” then you’re losing the locker room.

Is Judge the driving force behind the Giants decline? John Mara deserves most of the blame because he continues to trust Dave Gettleman to build a competitive roster.

I would also cut Judge more slack if Jason Garrett wasn’t calling plays for the offense, and Daniel Jones wasn’t playing quarterback. To be honest, Garrett and Jones haven’t been terrible this season, and I’m sure many will say that Jones is not the root of all problems. To be fair, Jones has been good in spots, especially against the WFT and Saints. But anyone who has watched every game with Jones under center knows he’s not “the guy.”

This past Monday night, the Chiefs wanted to give that game away so badly, but the Giants refused to take it. Patrick Graham called a perfect game on the defensive side of the ball, and the defensive line and secondary gave the offense every chance to take the lead. But Judge, Garrett, and Jones did everything they could to make sure the Giants would lose.

One sequence at the end of the first half showed why Judge should not be the head coach next year. The Giants are trailing 14-7 late in the first half, but they’re in the red zone and face a third-and-four from the 7-yard line. Judge calls a timeout, which is fine if they’re discussing a third-down play and a fourth-down play. On the Manningcast, Michael Strahan asked why teams run plays a yard or two short of the first down marker.

We all know how this story goes.

In conservative Giants fashion, the offense ran a passing play two yards short of the first down. Did the Giants go for it on fourth-and-two from the 5-yard-line?

Nope.

There is a time and place to go for it on fourth down, and that was the situation to roll the dice. However, the Giants kicked a field goal, content with going into the half down four points.

The mistakes kept piling up. In the second half, the “Disciplined Giants” were flagged for taunting, which negated a big play, offsides, which took away an interception, and a facemask, which put the Chiefs into Giants’ territory.

To make matters worse, Joe Judge’s clock management makes Andy Reid look like Doctor Strange. Refusing to call the timeout before the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter and letting precious seconds go to waste is inexcusable.

After all of this, the Giants STILL had a chance to tie or even win the game, down three points with 1:07 left in the fourth quarter. The four plays went like this:

  • Checkdown for a 3-yard gain
  • Sack
  • Incomplete pass
  • Sack

Game over.

With a pedestrian offense and a hit-or-miss defense, what does Judge exactly do for the Giants? Coach a decent special teams unit? Throw away timeouts like it’s expired Halloween candy? Blame the headsets for his coaching miscues? Post World War II quotes on the locker room wall to inspire the guys to play for him?

The Giants are a mess, and Judge is a big reason why. It’s time for Mara to move on from Judge (and Gettleman and Garrett and Jones).

(But we all know Judge is coming back next season.)

Update: COVID outbreak!

What are your thoughts on Joe Judge as the coach of the New York Giants? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us, @danny_giro.

Giants Continue To Lose In Heartbreaking Fashion

Daniel Jones / New York Giants

Where do I even begin? Let’s start here. No team loses games like the New York Giants. No other team takes you on an emotional rollercoaster that ends in heartbreak quite like the Giants.

Add last night’s loss to the pantheon of bad Giants’ losses. After Graham Gano kicked a field goal to put New York ahead 29-27 with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, I tweeted this out. I, like a lot of other Giant fans, know how this works. We’ve seen how this script ends.

Lo and behold, the Washington Football Team drove right down the field and set kicker Dustin Hopkins up for a 48-yard game-winning field goal. The kick was no good!

I jumped off my couch, screamed at the top of my lungs, and pounded my chest in celebration.

That happiness ended within 5 seconds after I saw the flag. Dexter Lawrence, who lined up a nose tackle, jumped offsides, giving the WFT another chance to win.

Spoiler alert: WFT won.

The Giants build you up just to rip your heart out at the end. It’s a disease. The Giants do not know how to win close football games. Sure, they can beat the Cowboys and Bengals with a backup quarterback, but they couldn’t beat Taylor Heinicke, who threw for 336 yards and 2 TDs in an excellent performance.

There are people to blame, but one man deserves none of it. That player is Daniel Jones, who played one of the best games of his career. Danny Dimes finished with 249 yards passing and 1 TD to go along with 95 yards rushing and 1 TD. Jones did everything the Giants asked him to do and more. Jones is the best runner on the team right now and if it weren’t for a BS holding penalty, he would’ve rushed for close to 150 yards and 2 TDs.

I will be the first to say that Jones is not “the guy.” Jones hasn’t shown he’s a franchise quarterback. However, last night was not his fault. I understand the bar is not particularly high for Jones. That’s not a groundbreaking revelation. Jones is the butt of a lot of jokes, and a lot of the criticism is warranted. But last night isn’t on Dimes. Some will point to Darius Slayton’s drop and blame Dimes for throwing it too far. Could he have made a slightly better throw? Of course. But Dimes put that ball on Slayton’s hands. Slayton HAS to make that catch.

Slayton can catch deep passes. He proved it earlier in the game!

Dimes, you’re absolved (for now). Defense, take a seat. What happened to the Giants’ defense? This was supposed to be the strength of the team. Teddy Bridgewater and Heinicke, two quarterbacks that were backups heading into training camp, torched the Giants. The Broncos and WFT combined for over 800 (!) yards of total offense. That is unacceptable.

The pass rush is nonexistent. Who is the best pass rusher for the Giants right now? Anyone? My vote would be for Azeez Ojulari. When a rookie is leading the team in the sacks, there’s a problem.

Pound for pound, the Giants’ secondary was the best unit on the team coming into the season. Yet, they’ve been a massive disappointment. Terry Mclaurin became Jerry Rice last night. Patrick Graham has a “keep everything in front of you” mentality, which is fine in the first half. But when the game mattered, Heinicke carved the Giants’ secondary, scoring on two of the final three possessions to win the game. That can’t happen.

To the secondary’s credit, they did force a turnover in one of the biggest spots of the game.

This leads me to my final point. The biggest percentage of the blame falls on Joe Judge and the entire coaching staff. Judge coached an awful game last night. For a coach that prides himself on execution and doing the little things right, the Giants were an undisciplined mess.

In the first half, the Giants took a delay of game/false start out of a timeout. That led to a sack, and that resulted in a punt. Points disappeared before our very eyes.

After the big turnover late in the fourth quarter, the Giants needed one first down to put the game away and make it so they have the ball last. Jason Garrett, who wasn’t awful last night, and the offense only wasted 16 seconds before kicking a field goal. That’s unacceptable. (I want to rant about Garrett’s play-calling, but I have to wrap this article up.)

Then, Lawrence jumped offsides on the most important play of the game. Judge is supposed to be a special teams guru, and yet this team made the biggest mistake of the game on special teams. You don’t see good teams jumping offsides on field goal attempts. The Giants were undisciplined, and that falls entirely on Judge.

Last night hurt a lot. Many are saying the season is over. Are they wrong? I’m not sure yet. If the Giants lose to the Falcons in Week 3 on Eli Manning Day, then I’m out on this season.

At least Giant fans get to relax on Sunday.

P.S. Saquon… yikes. If he’s hurt, sit him.

What are your initial thoughts in regards to the Giants’ loss to the WFT? Tweet us, @unafraidshow.

Giants Hire Joe Judge As Next Head Coach. Now What?

Joe Judge

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.