New York Giants Training Camp: When Life Gives You Lemons

The 2020 NFL off-season has been anything but normal thanks to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

But while some people are lamenting what the COVID-19 pandemic has done to the life and to football, Giants head coach Joe Judge is taking the lemons and is making lemonade.

Let’s rewind for a moment. One of the significant concerns many people had about Judge, a first-time head coach at any level with a brand new staff and a lot of new and young players who up until about three weeks ago only got to interact with each other through the magic of technology, was how he was going to pull together a football program.

It was a legitimate question considering there are other teams in the league who have continuity within their walls or, among those with new head coaches, have experience.

But if you were expecting Judge to panic or rock back and forth muttering, “Woe is me,” then you’ve got the wrong man.

As he’s done with every twist and turn this crazy off-season has produced, Judge has adapted. He created many schedules to fit just about any kind of scenario the league established. When the decision was made by the league and NFLPA to take away the preseason games, Judge, who has 80 players that he wants to give a fair shake to, adjusted again.

The Giants rookie head coach has taken the 90-minute practice allotment and created a structure in which two groups of players run through the same scripted plays in practice. This approach not only cuts down on time wasted between shuffling guys in and out of the lineup, but it also allows the Giants coaching staff to optimize their limited amount of time.

“The benefit of that is having two different groups mirror the script for each other is we don't just get to watch one group run a certain play and a player learns off somebody else's mistake. They all get to watch the tape and see themselves doing the exact same play as somebody else and see the differences in how they executed,” Judge explained.

“Maybe the other player executed what worked better for us. And then as coaches, it gives us just a better opportunity to see everybody play as much ball as we can.”

In choosing which group he watches, Judge said it depends on what he wants to see.

“I want to see certain guys on when they're working fundamentally and obviously certain position groups schematically and how they're building into a daily install,” Judge said. “So early in practice, I know exactly where I'm going. As we get into the team periods, I know the plays I really want to see with each group based on who a certain matchup may be.”

It sounds exhausting, and maybe it is. But credit Judge for coming up with a way to make lemonade out of lemons and get as much information he and his staff need to evaluate players they’re only going to see in pads for ten practices over the next 2½ weeks.

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