Endless mishaps should have Judge on hot seat

At this point, all you can do is shake your head at the Giants.

From a big-picture perspective, nothing has gone according to plan.

All those weapons they acquired and brought back from injury in the offseason? The injuries keep coming and the offense — tied for second-to-last in the NFL with 22 touchdowns — is just as anemic as last year. Remember the idea that Daniel Jones would take a leap in Year 3 with a second season in Jason Garrett’s system? Garrett was fired in Week 12 and Jones may end up missing the final six games with a neck strain — casting doubt on his future both in terms of health and the Giants’ conviction that he can be the franchise quarterback.

And the hope that Judge would build on his 6-10 debut season with an established culture and a full training camp with COVID-19 more under control? All he’s done is anger the fan base with poor game management and platitudes instead of results.

The Giants (4-9) need to win three of their final four games when they begin the homestretch against the Cowboys (9-4) Sunday at MetLife Stadium just to match what Judge accomplished in 2020 during this new 17-game schedule.

In other words, they must beat the Eagles, Bears and Washington in consecutive weeks because they have virtually no chance against the soonto-be NFC East champions this week.

General manager Dave Gettleman is a goner after the season and Judge, frankly, should be, too.

“When I walk off the field after the last game, whenever that is, I want to feel like, do we have a chance to win a Super Bowl with this group?” Giants president John Mara said before the season. “Does this group give us a chance to win the Super Bowl? Are we moving in that direction? If the answer to that is yes, then we’re not going to consider making any changes.”

That’s laughable to read now considering the state of the franchise. But several reports are that Mara is still sold on Judge as the Giants’ next great coach, which seems at least partly rooted in the reality that Mara wants to avoid the bad optics of firing a third coach in five years.

If that’s the case, then the standard is simply a joke and the Giants are content with making excuses. Because that’s all Judge has at this point — excuses, hypotheticals and spin jobs with very little positive events transpiring on the field.

Ask yourself: What, exactly, does Judge do well? And why should the Giants limit their pool of general manager candidates by forcing one to have an arranged marriage with Judge?

Doubling down on misplaced conviction in Judge would be insanity.

“What I see on the field right now is we have a lot of young, developing players, a lot of guys that are going to end up being impact players for us and build a strong foundation on the field,” Judge said during a 1,688-word soliloquy at the start of the game week. “The reality is we put a lot of young players on the field and there are some learning curves and there are some things we have to help eliminate and can’t have one-offs with mistakes. But you can see the right demeanor of play, you can see the right style of play of what we want.

“On top of being good players, we’re getting the right kind of people in the building. We’re getting team-first people. We’re getting guys who are putting the team first on decisions they make. We’re also getting guys that are fighting adversity.”

On and on Judge went, because evidently no one wins in practice more than the Giants.

The issue with harping on a “foundation” is that there aren’t really that many surefire keepers being developed on this roster.

The offensive line has one legitimate starter in Andrew Thomas. The nonproductive “star” running back Saquon Barkley needs to be a goner after next season. Kadarius Toney is a dazzling talent at receiver. But basically, the secondary is the only group with several bright spots when you look at play-makers like Xavier McKinney, James Bradberry, Logan Ryan and Julian Love.

Naturally, there is “adversity” with that group right now as well. McKinney went on the COVID-19 list this week as a close contact, but he’s expected to be cleared to play Sunday. The Giants had four defensive backs and four others test positive this week as cases spike around the country, but the rest of the NFL is dealing with that, too.

Sadly, it seems excuses for all the mishaps may grant Judge another season in New York, which would simply be par for the course with Mara during this putrid cycle of failure.