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New York Giants head coach Joe Judge was an assistant and special teams coordinator for the New England Patriots from 2012 through 2019.
During that time, the Patriots won three Super Bowl titles and had one of the best special teams units in the league — a feather in Judge’s cap.
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When it came time for the Giants to find a new head coach, Bill Belichick got on the phone with co-owner John Mara and sung Judge’s praises. The rest, as they say, is history.
Now, for the first time since Judge’s hiring, he and the Giants will head up to Foxborough for a series of joint practices with the Patriots, culminating with the final preseason game on Sunday night.
Asked about Judge on Monday, Belichick pulled no punches.
“Joe’s a good football coach. Period,” Belichick said bluntly. “All the things that a good coach needs to do, Joe does. And he did a great job here for me in a number of different capacities. Most importantly, special teams, but he had a lot of other responsibilities as well. When I gave him something to do, he did a good job of it, and so that led to other things. I know he’s like a very, just accomplished football coach. He has a good understanding of the game and how to coach it.”
That respect for Judge helped lead to these joint practices. And given the familiarity between the two coaches, both feel comfortable and confident in how these practices will be conducted.
“Look forward to working against the Giants on Wednesday and Thursday and then playing on Sunday,” Belichick said. “Really appreciate the opportunity to work with Joe and the Giants. It’s been obviously a good line of communication. I’m confident that we have a good format where we can improve our team and we’re looking forward to doing that, but in the meantime, we’re really focused on taking advantage of these two days and getting some things in place that we’ll be able to run against the Giants.”
“This is a great opportunity to work against a good opponent, very well-coached, and to go up there and make sure that we hit some specific situations and focuses that both teams need in the regular season. This is really just a great opportunity for us to go up there and work against a quality opponent,” Judge said.
The two joint practices are currently scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday with a 10:00 a.m. EDT start time each day.
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