Joe Judge Ready to Lead Next Phase of Giants Rebuild

When Joe Judge was hired to be the 19th head coach in New York Giants franchise history on January 8, 2020, he came in with a vision for how he wanted the football team to look like and a plan on how to make it happen.

Nearly one year later, Judge is well on his way toward fulfilling that promise he made in front of a packed audience there for his introductory press conference, even if the won-loss record isn't there just yet.

"I’ve stuck true to what I believe in, and I’m always going to do that," Judge said as his first season as Giants head coach came to a close Monday. "I’m always going to do it with my personality and be myself.

"But my vision for this team of being a blue-collar team who’s going to come to work every day, that we’re going to do it with the right kind of people and the right kind of commitment to the team, that we’re going to work to reflect the area. That’s something I’ve stuck to consistently and I’m always going to stick to consistently."

Among the most important things for Judge was to create a team that represented the tri-state area's values and was one that the fans could embrace as one of their own.

Through a collaborative effort with the team's Community Relations Department, Judge implemented a program for both coaches and players alike. They split up into smaller teams to use their platforms to bring awareness to social and economic issues to better the community.

But just as important to Judge was creating a competitive, blue-collar, gritty type of team with whom the fans would identity.

"I can absolutely say yes," said Judge when asked if the team has met that expectation of reflecting the tri-state area. "When I think about the people of this area, I think about hard-working people who wake up every day regardless of the circumstance or situation, that have to go ahead and provide for their families.

"I think about people that work in tough conditions. I think about people who have to work through the COVID era. I think about people who have to go ahead and do things that are tougher for them just to make it better for other people. I think about people who don’t have a choice but to finish the job they start.

"And I think about our players and the way they’ve played this season, and you talk about adversity and going up and down when things aren’t always going right, things aren’t always peachy.

"These guys showed up to work every day to work hard. They showed up with a level of commitment. They showed up to make sure they made the decisions that were better for everybody else involved, even when it didn’t include themselves personally at times."

Judge's vision is far from being complete as in having laid the foundation. The next step is to build on that and turn the Giants into a team that no longer has to sweat things out regarding their postseason chances.

And that's not just a one-year goal either; Judge would like to be able to replicate the successive years of success like what he experienced in New England and Alabama as a member of those coaching staffs.

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So what's the next step to get closer to that goal?

"Obviously, we have to improve on the field with some tangible results," he said. "We could look at that. We have to make sure we make progress across the board with personnel and schematics.

"But I have kind of measures in the rungs along the way that I kind of keep tabs on. I make sure the team is moving in the right direction. Not to be kind of evasive with that answer right there, but I’m not going to set out some identified goal for everyone to go ahead and measure us against on a yearly basis."

The good thing about Judge is how he's been able to adapt to whatever curveballs are thrown his way. Whereas most people would get knocked off their game, the Judge has subscribed to the "adapt or die" mantra and knows that no matter how well things go toward a goal, a team will never truly be a finished product.

"You never arrive," he said. "Our guys have worked to make the people of this area proud. That’s something we talked about on a weekly basis. That’s something we’ll always continue to emphasize, along with the history of this program.

"But being the pride of the people of New York and North Jersey, that’s a main focus for the players and coaches in this building. That’s something we’re always going to go ahead and prioritize in terms of how we work, how we play and the types of players we have in this building."

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