With all that’s going on, nobody will say this guy had it easy in first year as Giants head coach
However Joe Judge’s first season as Giants head coach turns out, no one will accuse him of having it easy, that’s for sure.
The world has much bigger problems in this coronavirus pandemic, obviously. No one is throwing a pity party for Judge, and he certainly wouldn’t ask you to.
But assuming we all have perspective on the situation, and that we’re agreeing to talk sports for a minute in these uncertain and unsettling times, it’s worth pointing out that Judge has encountered an alarming amount of adversity as a rookie NFL head coach.
And he’s only been in the big chair for 68 days.
Think about what he’s dealing with:
His strength and conditioning coach just left abruptly for Indiana University.
He had to pull his coaches and scouts off the road entirely in preparation for his first-ever draft as an NFL head coach.
He is not allowed to host prospects in person on Top-30 visits for the foreseeable future.
He received this news in the middle of his preparation to spend somewhere between $40-70 million in free agency to try and repair a barren roster.
And it’s possible — though the Giants haven’t done this yet — that Judge and other rookie head coaches might have to delay the start of their offseason program on April 6, as well.
First-year coaches are typically given a two-week head start on the rest of the league to begin their offseason workout programs. So this year, the Giants, Panthers, Cowboys, Browns and Washington are scheduled to start on April 6; the rest of the league on April 20.
But maybe that gets delayed, and then maybe the first-year rookie coaches lose that two-week headstart altogether, if bumping the whole calendar back pushes other teams’ start dates too late into the summer toward training camp. Or maybe they keep that two-week headstart but everyone loses some OTA (offseason training activity) spring practices, robbing Judge and other firstyear coaches of valuable preparation time at another point of their offseason program.
But, oh, did we mention the restrictions on training camp workloads for players in the new collective bargaining agreement?
On top of this spring’s unprecedented chaos, Judge is likely going to have new and significant limitations on his preferred preparation strategies.
“We will practice with a physical attitude. We will practice in pads. We will practice live tackling,” Judge said at his introductory press conference on Jan. 9.
Maybe sometimes, but not as often as Judge would like.
The new CBA puts new limitations and caps on the amount of practices per week, length of practices and time at team facilities per day, padded practices, consecutive padded practices, joint practices, consecutive work days and much more.
These are among the owners’ concessions in return for adding a 17th game and refusing to give the NFLPA much more of the whole revenue pie.
All of this is on top of Judge inheriting a team that has lost a league-high 36 games the last three years. He didn’t even consider the Big Blue gig a possibility three months ago, until suddenly he had Mississippi State and the Giants both on his heels.
This is on top of Judge quickly assembling a coaching staff in January. And in between he’s attended Eli Manning’s Jan. 24 retirement ceremony, reviewed countless hours of film to scout his own roster and free agents around the league.
He’s gathered his own coaching staff to discuss and begin installing systems and schemes. He did the grueling NFL Combine in Indianapolis, inviting some pressure and criticism by refusing to say the name of any Giants player, including Daniel Jones.
And he hit the road for college pro days, successfully making it to Auburn where top-10 pick Derrick Brown showed off his skills as a powerful defensive lineman, before needing to pull himself and everyone off the road until further notice.
Oh, and the Giants’ facility is all but shuttered, too.
Other than that? Judge’s first couple months have been a breeze. Again, all in perspective.