Giants Hire Joe Judge, Leaving Browns as Only Team Without a Head Coach

Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting the New York Giants are finalizing a deal with New England Patriots special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach Joe Judge. Judge was also reportedly one of the candidates being targeted by Mississippi State to be their head coach. Judge played quarterback at Mississippi State in college. It's being reported that the Giants had made their decision last night by Schefter, but there are any number of reports that have called that attempted spin.

New York Giants are finalizing a deal to make Patriots’ wide receivers coach Joe Judge their next head coach, league sources tell ESPN. Deal was in the works as of last night, which is another reason Matt Rhule took the Panthers’ HC job.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 7, 2020

Regardless of when or how the Giants came to the decision to hire Judge, it means the Cleveland Browns are now the only team in the NFL without a head coach. They also seem to have several of their preferred candidates available including Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski among others.

The Browns are scheduled to interview McDaniels on Friday. The Carolina Panthers, who have hired Matt Rhule, were slated to meet with Stefanski on Thursday, which may be when the Browns will interview him. They are also planning to interview Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and have spoken to a handful of other candidates.

The Browns may well be the last team to hire their head coach, but they've found themselves seemingly in a great position. Their remaining candidates can't leverage another head coaching job, instead potentially turning the job down to not be a head coach for another season. Ownership has to identify the right candidate for them and support them as much as possible, but they are in a good spot to achieve those things.