Dave DeGuglielmo: I'm Doing the Adjusting
New York Giants offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo didn’t have the time to be apprehensive about stepping into the Giants offensive line room mid-season to take over for Marc Colombo, whom head coach Joe Judge fired during the team’s bye.
"Everyone gets paid to do a job. So do the players,” DeGuglielmo said in his first media session with reporters Tuesday. “We all have to adjust, adapt and improvise, and that’s what we’re all doing. I mean, it’s just business as usual. It’s just highly unusual."
Indeed, it’s not often that a position coach comes in to replace another. Still, based on last week’s performance by the Giants offensive line, the Giants didn’t appear to take any steps backward.
According to PFF, the Giants offensive linemen allowed just two out of the three pressures given up to the Bengals in their 19-17 win.
Nestled in that sound showing by the Giants offensive line is embattled rookie left tackle Andrew Thomas’ first pressure-free performance of his career.
“Joe Judge and Jason Garrett have a solid system in place,” DeGuglielmo said. “I’m coming in to just do my role as a line coach and try to keep things moving in the proper direction.”
Head coach Joe Judge mentioned that at this point, it wasn’t realistic to expect the offensive line to start over from scratch, a notion with which DeGuglielmo agreed.
“I can’t put in a lot of my terminology,” DeGuglielmo said. “We’re already midstream, it’s about the players. It’s not about the players; it’s about the comfort level of the players and communicating things."
So the onus is on him to adjust.
“Things are going in a good direction right now," he said. "The guys are great about working hard in improving in the ways that we’re talking about. I’m trying to learn their language and talk in a way that they’ll understand it.
“I’m doing the adjusting,” he added. “I’m having to learn a new language, if you will. It’s like taking a job in Spain and I don’t know Spanish. Well, I still know how to do my job; I just don’t know the language."
The 52-year-old Boston native is on his second stint with the Giants. He was hired by Tom Coughlin, for whom he also worked as a graduate assistant at Boston College, to be on the Giants coaching staff in 2004. DeGuglielmo served as an offensive quality control coach before switching to the assistant offensive line coach under Pat Flaherty, a role he held for the Giants through 2008.
DeGuglielmo's job-hopping, combined with his reputation of having a blunt communication style, has some wondering if his act might eventually wear thin.
But DeGuglielmo downplayed his frequent movement around the league, saying, "Each one of those situations is a different circumstance. Sometimes I’ve left for a better job. I turned down a contract at Miami last year."
Would he like to make a home with the Giants on Judge’s staff?
"Believe me, my wife wouldn’t like me bouncing around this much and I wouldn’t like it as much,” he said.
“You have to find the right opportunity and the good thing is, I think I bring something to whatever program wants me. This is the third time I’ve replaced a guy at a certain position. When you look at it, I still keep getting hired, so I must have some value to somebody for some reason."
Get the latest New York Giants news by joining our community. Click "Follow" at the top right of our SI Giants Country page. Mobile users click the notification bell.
