What's Next for Giants Offense After Jason Garrett Dismissal?

Why did Judge fire Garrett now and not at the bye? And what's the plan to replace Garrett's role as play caller?

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Nov 23, 2021 5:49 PM EST

Despite his tenure with the New York Giants not working out, now-former offensive coordinator Jason Garrett took the high road after being relieved of his duties with the club.

In a statement released by the team at his request, Garrett thanked the Mara and Tisch families, his former coaching colleagues, staff, and players for the opportunity to be a part of the organization.

"While the bottom-line results weren’t what we wanted, I’ll be forever inspired by their approach, their professionalism and the fight they demonstrated regardless of the circumstance," he said.

Head coach Joe Judge informed Garrett that he was relieved of his duties after returning from an embarrassing loss against Tampa Bay on Monday night.

RELATED: Jason Garrett Out as Offensive Coordinator

Garrett, a former NFL quarterback who had a brief stint with the Giants back in 1999-2000, added, "One of the things that motivated me to accept this position was the opportunity to help rebuild the Giants into a contending team. We knew there would be many challenges. My expectations for our offense were much greater than what our results have been, and I accept full responsibility for that."

Judge, who spoke to reporters Tuesday afternoon, opened his conference call by praising Garrett and speaking of the respect he has for him as a coach and a person.

"He's helped our development here," Judge said. "He's built very strong relationships in the building with the players, along with other support staff members. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for all he's done for us.

"That being said, ultimately I'll make every decision based on what's best for the team. Generally speaking, the offense's job is to score points. I don't believe we're scoring enough points and it's my job as the head coach to make sure I give our players an opportunity to go out there and make plays."

The timing of Judge's decision has raised some eyebrows, as the Giants were coming off their bye week. But Judge noted that the Giants had won two of their three games before the bye week in which they had shown some progress.

"First off, I don't think there's ever an ideal time to make a change like this in a season, but you have to go ahead and you have to be prepared to go and roll with it," Judge said, noting that this move was not a snap decision or a reflection of Monday night.

"We make adjustments all the time with players when we lose significant players to injury or a loss from the game plan or whatever it may be that we have to make adjustments to keep on moving.

"In terms of entering the bye week, we'd played a stretch of three games where I thought as a team, we were making some progress overall. Ultimately I thought going into the bye week, give it a little more time going forward, and I just want to make sure that we continue to make progress in the right direction.

"We got to make some moves to give our offense and opportunity to change some things up, to be more productive and ultimately score more points."

Judge declined to confirm reports that senior offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens would assume Garrett's role as the offense's play-caller.

"We're going to handle things collaboratively and house with the offense," Judge said, noting that all options, including the possibility of him calling the plays, were on the table. "We'll kind of go on as the week goes, in terms of specific roles on a game day."