Perspectives on the Giants Combine Press Conferences

It might not have initially sounded like it, but Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman not only have a clear vision of how to fix this Giants team, they're both on the same page.

Indianapolis, IN -- Whenever there is a head coaching change, a part of me wonders how things are going to work out.

Let’s face it; as humans, we dislike the unknown. It scares us. And when we’re faced with the unknown, we look for a sign—any sign—that everything is going to be all right.

So when the Giants replaced Pat Shurmur with a Joe Judge, a man who had never been a head coach at any level, I had concerns.

But in having heard Judge speak now twice—not just “hearing” the words but witnessing in person the body language, the inflection, and the like—I think the Giants got it right (finally) with this hire.

Judge strikes me as a no-nonsense, straightforward guy. I look at how he built his staff, taking his time to vet the candidates to make sure they fit his vision and expectations for being teachers—he had a great line when asked why he put so much emphasis on hiring teachers when he said, “We don’t have cheerleaders at the Giants either from what I understand, so we weren’t looking at him in the coaches’ offices.” 

And I like what he’s doing. There’s a nice mix of young and old, NFL vets and first-timers. And from the sounds of things, they are all excellent communicators who have hit the ground running in building a solid foundation for this football team.

But the thing I like most about Judge so far is how he’s taken it upon himself to serve as the protector of the franchise. This was evident when he refused to offer any opinions about players when asked—and by the way, I don’t think he’s mentioned very many of his players by name in the two times I’ve heard him speak.

Here’s what Judge had to say about his theory behind not offering opinions just yet about players.

“Every one of our players is going to come here with a blank slate and be able to compete from the ground up from day one. I’m not going to establish any kind of status or hierarchy within the individual players or position groups by spending a month talking about individuals. 

"That’s important to me, and I want you guys to understand my reason for that. I can’t tell everyone that they have an equal slate, and they show up on April 7, and I’ve spent a month talking about a specific player. Everyone is going to have the same opportunity on a daily basis to compete.

“But my reason for not going into individual players at this point is it’s important that our players understand, the only thing that’s going to be relevant is how they perform from day one moving forward. That the past is irrelevant.”

He’s right in that the past is irrelevant. Although many of the same faces are set to return to the team, there will be new schedules, new challenges, and new ways of doing things. Some who struggled before might thrive and vice versa. And it just wouldn’t be fair of Judge to attach any expectations on any of the players until he can work with them on the football field.

Here are a few other takeaways and thoughts from Judge’s and Gettleman’s press conferences.

*Judge was asked about senior defensive assistant/outside linebackers coach Bret Bielema’s flirtations with not one but two college head coaching jobs, and said, “Just understand that when you hire good people, there’s going to be interest. That’s a positive. When people are desired on your staff, that means business is good. But if I comment on one person’s hypothetical, that opens the door to every hypothetical ever, no matter what level of truth may or may not carry with it.”

I have to think that before accepting the Giants' job, Bielema expressed his desire to become a college head coach if an opportunity opened up and that Judge agreed to it, which would explain why Bielema got to interview.

WATCH: Dave Gettleman on whether the Giants' young defense needs more veteran leadership.

 *I came away from Gettleman’s first press conference fully convinced that he intends to trade down to acquire more assets, which makes a ton of sense. Reading the tea leaves, Gettleman never really likes to have to wait too long in between rounds, and if he trades down with a quarterback-needy team, he stands a chance of getting back high into the third round.

But what had me convinced this will be the year they trade down is that when Gettleman was asked if there was a line as far as how many spots he could conceivably drop and yet still emerge with a good player, he said, “There’s a lot. There are some really good players. …There are a lot of high-graded players, I’ll tell you that right up front. I’m excited to see where the board ends up. It’s a pretty strong draft.”

Gettleman would later speak about how unless he had great value in the draft, it didn’t pay for him to trade down in past years. It sounds like this year, there is plenty of value if he gets the right offer.

*It’s not a game-changing set of clues, but Gettleman did shed a little light on what he’s looking for on the offensive line, saying, “With the inside guys, you’d like to have power. One of the things you have to do is you have to match up in your division. All three teams in our division have inside power on their defensive line. You have to match power with power. If the inside leakage occurs too quickly, now he’s running around for his life.”

Similarly, he did admit that in scouting defensive players for Judge and his staff, there are a few different things Judge’s group wants versus what Pat Shurmur’s group wanted. So if nothing else, it will be fun trying to piece those pieces to the puzzle together.