Laugh all you want, Joe Judge has all the makings of a good head coach

Why the Patriots assistant might be *more* ready than a coordinator.

Joe Judge!?!?!?

I think that’s how well all reacted when the news of the Giants’ head coaching hire broke.

Jokes were cracked. Memes were made. The Giants were summarily roasted for missing out on all of the big names we’ve heard during the hiring cycle. I know I had a good laugh about the whole thing. I didn’t think Joe Judge was a real person. I was expecting GM Dave Gettleman to show up to the press conference in one of those fake nose and mustache disguises pretending to be this “Joe Judge” character. I had a good laugh about New York papers speculating that the Giants could maybe lure Bill Belichick away from New England and then ending up with his anonymous special teams coordinator. instead.

Joe Judge could very well be the next Belichick, but that initial reaction will never NOT be hilarious.

But then the laughing died down and I had to do my job, which required me to find out who this Joe Judge person actually was. And the more I read about the coach who launched a thousand memes, the more I realized that I … *checks if the coast is clear* … sorta, kinda like this hire.

(Just in a vacuum, that is. I do think this further exposes the obvious racial bias that has plagues NFL coaching searches. Black coaches like Jim Caldwell, who has a track record of winning, and Eric Beiniemy, who has coordinated the NFL’s best offense over the past two seasons, aren’t getting serious looks while a white special teams coordinator most people had never heard of just walked into the Giants job. It feels irresponsible to just dismiss that and celebrate the hire, even if I do think it was a good one. The process leading up to it was not.)

Let me list all the reasons I think Joe Judge (yes, I will be referring to him by his full name every time) might end up making us all look like fools for laughing at this news…

1) We are terrible at judging coaching hires

Seriously, go look up some analysis on past coaching hires, and you’ll see what I mean (this site named Doug Pederson the worst hire of 2016; he’s the only coach from that class who still has his job, and he won a Super Bowl). It’s impossible to judge these decisions because a lot of the skills that make great head coaches great are skills we never see applied publicly. Managing the locker room, delegating jobs to assistant coaches, running practices, etc. Calling plays and game-planning is just a small aspect of the head coaching job, but that’s all we have to judge candidates on when a one is hired.

So maybe Joe Judge has never called plays, but he won’t have to call plays as Giants head coach. He can hire someone who does have that experience to do it for him. Not a big deal.

John Harbaugh will probably win Coach of the Year in a few weeks and his Ravens are the favorites to win the Super Bowl (it would be his second). He has never called plays in the NFL (and was also a special teams coach before ascending to head coach). Instead, he has more time to manage a game and make sure he’s giving his team the best chance to win.

2) The special teams coordinator theory

I am blatantly stealing this take from former NFL defensive back and current ESPN analyst Domonique Foxworth. His theory:

  • Special teams coordinators make good head coaches because they deal with players from just about every position group
  • They have to convince players to do things they don’t necessarily want to do, like play special teams and tackle.
  • Like a head coach, they don’t have the luxury of spending a lot of time coaching up individuals, so they’re used to working with the time constraints.

A special teams coordinator is doing the head coaching thing, just at a much smaller scale. So while Joe Judge may not have play-calling experience, his experience coordinating New England’s special teams should be more applicable to this new gig.

3) Bill Belichick has been grooming him

Given the track record of Belichick assistants, I don’t know if this is necessarily a good thing, but this is the first time we’ve seen one of these guys get a head coaching job while not being touted as a schematic genius. Joe Judge was hired because he has the character traits of a good head coach, and Belichick apparently recognized that early…

4) Attention to detail is his thing

When you hear Belichick’s former players explain why he’s such a great coach, “attention to detail” almost always comes up. Well, we’re hearing the same thing about Joe Judge.

Just watch this video of him breaking down an opponent’s special teams.

At the very least, Joe Judge will be prepared for every game.

Freddie Kitchens wowed fans and analysts with his play-calling during his brief stint as the Browns’ interim offensive coordinator, but when he was given the head coaching job, his lack of attention to detail was an obvious issue and dragged down a talented roster down. That shouldn’t be a problem for Joe Judge.

5) He can coach any position on the field

I don’t know how much real coaching a head coach actually does, but it doesn’t hurt that Joe Judge has experience dealing with just about every position on the field. Hear it from Belichick:

He checks all the boxes!

Really, the success of Joe Judge’s stint as Giants coach will come down to his coaching hires and the talent he has on the roster. He seems to have all of the character traits we look for in a good head coach. If he puts together a smart coaching staff, the scheme will take care of itself. If he has a good roster — which is a big “If” considering who is in charge of that in New York — the wins will come.

The same can be said of any coach who was hired over the last few weeks. Joe Judge may not have the name recognition of those other guys, but he has just as good a chance of succeeding.

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