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From the outside of East Rutherford looking in, it would seem that first-year head coach Joe Judge is running the New York Giants roughshod.
After all, Judge has removed the names of players from their jerseys, he has them (and coaches) running penalty laps each day, no one is allowed to talk about injuries or recovery and the practices are about as consistently intense as the NFL allows.
This has led to some heavy criticism with former Giants linebacker Emmanuel Acho going as far as to call Judge “imbecilic.”
But inside the building, players and coaches do not share similar sentiments. In fact, they seem to enjoy both the structure and intensity.
Perhaps that’s a product of COVID-19 and the players having been essentially locked up for months, but whatever the case, they’re buying in. And for rookie safety Xavier McKinney, who spent years playing under Nick Saban, it’s really just more of the same.
“It’s very similar [to Alabama],” McKinney told reporters on Thursday. “When I kind of figured out and when he discussed some of his rules and how he wanted things to be handled and how we wanted us to be as a team, it was almost like a mirror version of how it was at Bama for me. As far as that, it was an easy adjustment for me. I have already been in this type of system. It wasn’t that hard of a transition.”
Although he didn’t want to speak for his teammates, McKinney believes that players have completely embraced the new culture and are genuine when they tell reporters they’re fine with it.
“I think as a team, we love it to be honest,” McKinney said. “Everybody is trying to get better, everybody is trying to improve. Everybody loves discipline, especially here. Right now, we go out there, we focus on what we need to focus on. Which is becoming a better team, getting better at individuals, that’s what we do. Everybody on the team likes Coach Judge, I think we’re good on that. We just go out there and work and try to get better as a team.”
If players think things have been intense so far, they’ll receive a wake-up call on Friday when they hold their first live scrimmage.
“I’m extremely ready. It’s tough to say because we have had some pretty intense days,” McKinney added. “Like I said, it’s supposed to be a scrimmage [Friday] and I’m ready for it. Whatever we might see, whatever we might get. It will definitely be fun to get out there and actually and be able to play freely without coaches yelling at you. Just going out there and playing, trying to make some plays.”
If McKinney and his teammates can make it through Friday’s scrimmage and still not complain about the level of intensity and physicality, it will be obvious that they’ll all collectively bought in and that the critical pundits got it wrong.
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