Joe Judge Reveals Plans for Readying the Team Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Giants are going back to college.
Well, sort of.
In a typical summer, the Giants would have been on Day 3 of their five-day acclimation period, with an eye toward ramping up for padded practices. But as we all know by now, the on-going COVID-19 pandemic has made this anything but a typical year, let alone summer.
This has forced Judge and coaches around the league to keep their heads on a swivel and adapt as new protocols and processes are put in place.
To that end, Judge, who spoke to reporters via video conference call Friday, said the preseason has been on par with what one might expect at the college level.
“This is almost a little bit more like a college training camp because you're not worried about getting ready for a preseason game,” Judge said.
“You're not concerned about having a plan in place for a specific opponent; you really have more time to warm up your own installs and what you can address within your own team at your own progression.”
Fortunately for Judge, both he and a vast majority of his coaching staff are very familiar with how college training camps are structured to where they can adapt that experience toward getting the pro level players ready.
“Obviously the number of coaches on our staff--myself included who have been through college football--we thought back into how you could have this progression,” he said.
“For us, there's really kind of waves of training camp, and we're allowed to have walkthroughs on the field. We're going to really emphasize a lot that mental part includes bringing these guys around the systems and give them the opportunity to really learn.”
But that doesn’t mean that Judge and his staff, which is going through its first training camp together and with the players, will leave game day to chance.
“We're in a situation with intrasquad scrimmage, intrasquad games where we'll also develop coaching staff as well [and] practice communication,” he said.
Those dry runs will also allow for contingency planning if a member of the coaching staff should test positive for COVID-19 and be unavailable to the team.
“We'll also divide the coach up and make sure that that certain communication takes place,” Jude added. “So, we have a plan in place.”
While that plan will unfold over the coming weeks, Judge emphasized that he’s looking to ensure the players receive a fair shake as far as being evaluated, especially considering the maximum number of padded practices (14) the league-wide schedule allows for starting August 17.
“You know, we've got to do a good job structuring training camp and that we're available to evaluate players first and make sure we make the right decision for this roster,” Judge said. “And you can't do that without playing full speed football--you can't have a safety who's ready to play on September 14th, but hasn’t had full speed football.”
Judge, who is leaving nothing to chance in terms of keeping his players and staff safe, said he's optimistic that his first NFL season as a head coach will include at least 16 games.
"We're going to have 16 games of opponents that are going to be a lot tougher than following protocols, and I look forward to playing every one."
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