New York Giants head coach Joe Judge expects his players to be attentive during team meetings despite the unorthodox nature of their situation as a result of the coronavirus, and to this point, he’s pleased with what he’s seen.
With a plethora of distractions surrounding them, Giants players have been fully engaged during virtual meetings and have displayed a sense of urgency to absorb and learn as much as they can before training camp begins — whenever they may be.
“You’re looking around, how’s the guy set up in his house? Is it a quiet setting? How is he dressed? What’s his eye focus like? Are his eyes down? Is he trying to text? We haven’t had a lot of that. We’ve had a lot of guys with great urgency,” Judge said during a Tuesday Zoom conference. “You have the opportunity in this setting here to really see your players in a meeting standpoint where they really can’t hide. Right now, we’re on a one by one box on this screen, but we’re all face to face. You don’t know who’s looking at who at this time, so everything you’re doing at all times is really what you’re being evaluated on.”
Although the Zoom meetings have provided a unique way to interact with his players, Judge is aware that the players’ virtual mannerisms will not fill out an entire evaluation.
“I’ve made this clear to our players. Everybody is always making an impression. I can’t sign on with the team and stumble through a team talk and show shoddy film and have technology that doesn’t work, and have them think ‘Ok, this guy is going to be ok. He knows what he’s doing.’ We’re always creating an impression. We’re always forming an opinion of ourselves,” Judge said.
“But along with that, let’s not get confused. We’re not going to evaluate a football team based purely on how they are on a computer. We can go down to Circuit City and find a great football team on a computer. But we want to make sure right now that, look, we’re just trying to give the players an opportunity to learn our material, to learn our systems, to get a head start going into training camp. We’re trying to be as much of a resource for these guys as we possibly can.
“We’re trying to get ahead of everything that they may need. Look, until we get on the grass, you really can’t evaluate a football player. You just can’t do it. I’ve made it clear to our team, this spring is about learning. This spring is about building a base so when we get there in training camp, we can play fast and we can play aggressive. You’ll be evaluated in training camp. Right now, we’re learning. Now along the way, you are making an impression.”
In addition to team meetings, Judge has also been having one-on-one meetings with players, which provides an opportunity to see just how much individual learning is being done.
Again, Judge has come away pleased.
“As I’m talking to these players individually and asking them for direct feedback as well, you can tell how engaged and really how invested they are in the program by the answers they give you. It’s been very telling and I’m very pleased with the way our players are working right now,” Judge said.
Although the situation has presented the Giants and Judge with unexpected challenges during his first year, the coach refuses to use it as an excuse and won’t allow his players to, either.
“All I’m focused on doing is everything to put our team in a position to play their best ball now. I’m not thinking about anything outside of the scope of that. Whatever we have to work with, we are going to make work for us,” Judge said. “We’re not thinking about what we don’t have right now, that’s not an option or thinking about what we have access to. Every day, we are focusing on how to get better and that’s my only focus right now.”
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