It sounds like Joe Judge absolutely crushed his interview with the New York Giants.
The Giants officially announced the hiring of Judge as their next head coach Wednesday. Judge had spent the previous five seasons as the special teams coordinator for the New England Patriots, where he also served as wide receivers coach in 2019. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick reportedly gave a "glowing recommendation" to the Giants on Judge, and the legendary coach also praised Judge as an "exceptional leader" in comments made to New York's team website.
Giants owner John Mara made his first public comment on the Judge hire in a press release Wednesday, and he detailed why the 38-year-old coach was the best fit for the job.
“This was the deepest group of quality candidates I can recall, and Joe is as impressive a candidate as I have interviewed,” Mara said. “We met with Joe on Monday. We did have some other candidates lined up to speak with, but Joe had established the threshold at that point. He knows what winning looks like and should look like. His exposure and experience in New England and Alabama have helped shape his philosophy of building a winning program and culture. We are thankful that he has accepted the responsibility to lead our team.”
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Judge worked under Alabama head football coach Nick Saban for three seasons and was a member of Belichick's staff in New England since 2012. He's seen what it takes to win championships at the college and pro level, and the experience of working with two of the greatest coaches in football history certainly carries a lot of value.
The Giants are one of the league's marquee franchises, but the head coach position has been one of the most unstable parts of the organization in recent years. Judge is the team's third head coach (excluding interim coaches) since Tom Coughlin left after the 2015 season. The Giants made the playoffs in 2016 but haven't returned since, and their record over the last four years is a disappointing 23-41.
New England Patriots
New York took a risk on Judge, but given how poorly its two previous head coaches performed, it was a gamble worth taking.