Despite the initial belief that the New York Giants could compete for a playoff spot this season, things have gone horribly wrong in Joe Judge’s second-year as head coach. And for the fifth straight season, the 4-9 Giants clinched a losing record after getting embarrassed by the Los Angeles Chargers in a 37-21 loss on December 12.
Although the writing appears to be on the wall that Judge will not survive what has been a disastrous second act of his tenure in New York, one NFL insider says not so fast.
According to Ralph Vacchiano of SNY, Judge’s job is believed to be safe at the moment. And that’s because Giants co-owner John Mara thinks he has found the next Bill Belichick or Bill Parcells, who are both legendary coaches that played a big part in turning the franchise around in the 1980s. Not to mention, Mara does not want to give up on another coach after two seasons since the last two hires, Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur, were let go after their first two years at the helm.
One NFL source told @RVacchianoSNY, “(John Mara) loves Judge. He thinks he’s found his (Bill) Belichick or (Bill) Parcells. And there’s just no way he gives up on another coach this soon.” t.co/pNAQupyKVW
Regardless, the Giants have gone 10-19 since Judge took over. The team has looked unprepared in a number of contests this season, which resulted in blowout losses to the Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chargers.
The Giants are expected to move on from general manager Dave Gettleman, who’s gone an NFL-worst 19-42 since returning to East Rutherford in 2018. But as Vacchiano said, Gettleman, 70, could be forced into retirement after the season ends.
If the Giants were to keep Judge, they could pair him with a candidate from the New England Patriots‘ scouting system, per NFL Network. Judge spent eight seasons on the Patriots’ coaching staff from 2012-2019 under Belichick, serving as a special teams assistant, special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach before accepting the head coaching job with the Giants after the ’19 season.
The team could potentially promote assistant GM Kevin Abrams to take over for Gettleman as well. This would be the most logical route if they do intend on keeping Judge.
In October 2021, Mara told The New York Post that he still believes in Judge and blames this putrid year on injuries. “Obviously, we’ve struggled this year, but he has not lost the locker room, and I’ve seen that happen over the years,” Mara told The Post. “I think the players still believe in him. We’ve just got to get our guys healthy again.”
So, after letting Gettleman remain as GM for four seasons with the team making little-to-no progress, Mara sounds like he is going to stay patient with Judge by giving him another year.
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Judge Still Confident
Coming off another demoralizing defeat in a disappointing season overall, Judge still sounds like a man whose job is safe.
“I’ve said this from the beginning: I’m not interested in having some kind of quick flash,” Judge told reporters on December 13. “I’m not interested in shortcuts. I’m not interested in quick fixes. I want to do this the right way. When I took this job I made it very, very clear that I was only going to do this if we’re all committed to doing this the right way.
“And that’s something that’s been very clear from ownership on down.”
As Vacchiano reported, people who have spoken with Mara in recent weeks say the co-owner is still praising Judge and believes he is the right individual to turn the ship around. Mara also feels that Judge has brought significant structural and cultural changes to the organization, which the second-year coach outlined to the media during the December 13 media conference.
According to Judge, he has spent a great deal of time teaching the players how to practice, bringing in the right guys and putting them on the proper nutrition plan, which are all aspects that he admitted have taken longer than anticipated.
“It’s a production business. We understand that,” Judge said. “But before you start getting all the results that everyone can see, you’ve got to get everything behind the scenes right.”
While turnover in the front office looks to be imminent, Judge is expected to get another shot at fixing the Giants next season.
Injury Bug
While Judge’s staff hasn’t been overly impressive in year two, the Giants have been hit with a significant amount of injuries this season as well.
Daniel Jones (neck), Saquon Barkley (ankle), Kenny Golladay (knee), Kadarius Toney (ankle, oblique, quad), Sterling Shepard (hamstring, quad), Darius Slayton (hamstring), Andrew Thomas (foot, ankle), Nick Gates (leg fracture), Shane Lemieux (torn patellar tendon), Blake Martinez (torn ACL), Adoree Jackson (quad), Jabrill Peppers (torn ACL) and Darnay Holmes (ribs) have all missed time or suffered season-ending injuries in 2021.
The Giants thought they had built a playoff team this year, but instead, they’ve been decimated by the injury bug. Now, it seems as though Judge will get another shot next season. But even if he sticks around, the Giants are likely to have a new GM in 2022.
They could also be in search of a new offensive coordinator after firing Jason Garrett following a Week 11 loss to the Buccaneers.
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Joe Judge’s Future With Giants Appears to be Sealed: Report