The Giants finally fired Joe Judge on Tuesday. Before they hire his replacement, they’d better re-examine what they want in a head coach.
On Sunday, the New York Giants lost their sixth straight game, and their seventh of eight, in an embarrassing 22-7 takedown by the Washington Football Team. The most ridiculous part of the game was unquestionably head coach Joe Judge’s decision to call two straight quarterback sneaks inside his own five-yard line. Basically, Judge gave his team no chance to compete, and showed no confidence in his players.
“We were backed up,” Judge said of the play calls after the game. “Had a shot at the play-action to get the ball out in the flat. We’ve got to make the throw and hit the guy right there. (Fullback) Eli (Penny) was open there. It would’ve been a good shot coming off the goal line there to get us some yardage and get us some space. Ultimately, we were backed up, I wanted to get room. We were going to push it on forward. I wasn’t going to live through what happened last week in Chicago, so we’re going to give ourselves room for the punt. We did that, we gave ourselves room for the punt. We protected it, we covered well. We played the field position situation I wanted to play. We held them on the next drive and that’s the way we want to go ahead and play that. Do we want to do that all the time we’re backed up? No, but that was a situation that with where we were we wanted to make sure that the things that we had an issue with last week in Chicago was not going to repeat itself.”
When Judge referred to what happened in Chicago, we’re assuming he’s referring to the safety the Bears had in a 29-3 Giants loss in which running back Devontae Booker couldn’t get out of the end zone on a run from the New York one-yard line.
That was Judge’s tenure with the Giants — a whole lot of ridiculous decisions explained away with Judge’s inexplicable confidence in his own coaching abilities. Outside of the quarterback sneaks, the weirdest part of Judge’s second season was the viral 11-minute rant he went on after that Bears game — a rant that Judge later said he did not regret at all.
It took the Giants organization until Tuesday to make the decision they really needed to make, but it happened. Judge was fired after two seasons, and a 10-23 record. This after multiple rumors that the Giants would retain Judge for a third season, and possibly give him more organizational control.
“[Giants chairperson] Steve [Tisch] and I both believe it is in the best interest of our franchise to move in another direction,” team president John Mara said in a statement. “We met with Joe yesterday afternoon to discuss the state of the team. I met again with Joe this afternoon, and it was during that conversation I informed Joe of our decision. We appreciate Joe’s efforts on behalf of the organization.
“I said before the season started that I wanted to feel good about the direction we were headed when we played our last game of the season. Unfortunately, I cannot make that statement, which is why we have made this decision.
“We will hire a general manager and that person will lead the effort to hire a new head coach.”
Now, the Giants are set for a total rebuild with Judge’s firing, and the retirement of general manager Dave Gettleman. The rebuild can’t come soon enough, and the Giants had better start rethinking the processes by which they hire their most important employees.
This formerly great franchise hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2016 season, they’ve finished fourth in the four-team NFC East in three of the subsequent five seasons, and they’ve burned through four coaches in the last six years: Ben McAdoo, Steve Spagnuolo as the interim head coach after McAdoo was fired during the 2017 season, then two years of Pat Shurmur (who went 9-23), and then Judge (who went 10-23).
“It is an understatement to say John and I are disappointed by the lack of success we have had on the field,” Tisch said in that same statement. “We are united in our commitment to find a general manager who will provide the direction necessary for us to achieve the on-field performance and results we all expect.”
Before they hire anybody, the Giants had best realize that their current hiring processes are disastrous, and take a different turn. Otherwise, more of the same can be guaranteed.
