New York Giants Head Coach Joe Judge's Approach Has a Very Good Chance for Success
How dare Joe Judge, a rookie head coach who has never held the job at any level and has yet to record a single NFL game to his name in the role, be such a hard-nosed guy.
Who does this 38-year-old “branch” from the Bill Belichick coaching tree think he is that he should dare to get after superstar running back Saquon Barkley, who by the way is one of the first Giants star players who is known to share his jersey number with another player (that being undrafted free agent cornerback Jarren Williams out of Albany), a practice that hasn’t been done under the last few coaching staffs in years?
And what makes anyone think that Judge and his staff, whose colorful language would have offended those who believe the players should be treated like adults, is going to have any kind of success as a head coach?
The difference, my friends, is in the approach.
To explain, let’s rewind to the early days of Tom Coughlin, a well-known hard-nosed head coach whose rules were legendary and who was such a stickler for the smallest detail.
How small? When he was named head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, he was said to have timed how long it would take for the players to get from the bench and to the locker room so that he could plan schedules down to the second.
Like Judge, Coughlin inherited a team that lost its way, a team that played a lot of sloppy and, at times, uninspired ball since its 2000 Super Bowl appearance. When he was introduced to the media as the team’s new head coach, Coughlin spoke in bold terms about bringing back pride to the program and renewing the attention to detail that had seeped out of the locker room.
He intended to remove the country club atmosphere from the previous regime, who at times went back and forth between being a player’s coach and being hard-nosed.
Where Coughlin fell short, at least in the beginning, is in his communication. He was said to have laid down the law of the land, and whatever he said was it—no explanations and no exceptions.
This approach understandably ruffled some of the more veteran players who were left bewildered as to the method behind Coughlin’s madness and was a big reason why some of the older veterans like Michael Strahan and Tiki Barber initially took exception to Coughlin’s coaching style.
The good news, as Giants fans know, is that Coughlin eventually changed his ways. No, he didn’t become any less anal in his expectations or rules, but he began communicating with his players and showing a softer side that allowed them to gain insight into Coughlin’s thinking.
Once there was that understanding, for a while, there was no stopping the Giants. They won two Super Bowls under Coughlin’s guidance and, starting with that 2007 season when Coughlin realized that a lightning bolt wouldn’t strike him down if he created a two-way communication street with his players, the team recorded a 49-31 record through 2011.
Judge? He’s inheriting a locker room whose previous head coach, Pat Shurmur, thought it might be a good idea to allow sofas to replace temporary lockers.
For a good part of last year, that same locker room allowed for a variety of games like cornhole tosses, table tennis, and cards, which the players would take part in during their downtime.
The intention to build camaraderie was honorable, but not the way to do it. So when the losing started to pile up, Shurmur had to play the bad guy in taking away some of the recreational games that the players had previously enjoyed.
So in comes Judge, whose locker room has yet to be open to the media (and won’t be this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, unfortunately). Judge has instituted rules and boundaries and guidelines that aim to build that camaraderie on and off the football field.
But the difference with Judge’s approach, and where Coughlin initially went wrong, is that Judge and his staff established that two-way communication right from the start.
“Everything we do has a purpose,” Judge said after Tuesday’s evening practice. “We’re very intent on explaining to our team why we’re doing things the way we’re doing them. I’m a big believer in educating our team in why we’re doing things. That we’re not just out there blindly winging it and trying to go ahead and force punishment.
“I explained the other day: When you make mistakes on the field, there are consequences. In the game, it’s penalty yards. At practice, we have to understand that there are consequences for mistakes. This isn’t a punishment. It’s a reminder that we have to draw our attention and be more detailed with how we approach things.”
See It: Select Photos from Tuesday evening's physical practice. (Photos courtesy of Giants.com.)
And in case anyone was wondering, the players have responded positively to Judge’s approach.
“We’re focusing on being a detailed team and holding each other accountable,” said running back Saquon Barkley. “The little things matter and that comes with the territory.”
“It’s going to take everybody to buy in if we want to be the team that we said that we wanted to be,” said receiver Sterling Shepard. “If that’s what he has in store for us, running laps for mistakes, just don’t make mistakes. That’s a simple way to get out of doing that. … I’m embracing the change and I’m all for it.”
“The way I see it, it just goes with Coach Judge’s philosophy,” said guard Kevin Zeitler. “He said we’re going to be detail-oriented, and there will be consequences for our actions that aren’t good for the team.
“They’re keeping us on track, they’re making sure we’re doing the things we need to do and they’re making sure we’re getting better every day. They’re not hoping, they’re making sure.”
Judge has taken notice of the team's response to the atmosphere he’s been trying to build.
“The thing I’m most impressed with is how coachable this team is. They come in here every day, they’re looking for details, they’re looking for coaching points, they want to improve, and they want to do better. They understand it’s about the message, not how the message is always delivered. We coach hard. We’re very demanding,” he said.
“This is a tough place to play and coach. We have to have guys who are thick-skinned and understand we have to operate in high-pressure situations. We can’t go out there on the practice field and just sing ‘Kumbaya’ together and think we’re going to advance.”
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