Giants’ new coach? Here come the Judge

Surprise move comes after top pick Rhule takes post with Panthers

NEW YORK— The Giants are expected to make a stunning head-coaching hire on Wednesday in the wake of preferred candidate Matt Rhule’s stiffarm of their franchise, landing on Patriots special teams coordinator Joe Judge.

They also reportedly requested to interview fired Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett to be Judge’s offensive co-ordinator, which would put an experienced coach the Giants have long coveted very close to the big chair.

Not one person saw Judge’s hiring coming following his Monday interview with the team, though, perhaps outside of Judge and his representatives themselves.

“Shocked,” “wow,” and “Joe Judge?” were three texts from sources immediately after ESPN broke the news.

Sources say Baltimore Ravens defensive co-ordinator Don Martindale had reason to believe he was the leader in the clubhouse as late as Monday evening, when Rhule chose the Carolina Panthers before even interviewing with his hometown team. But when Rhule agreed to a seven-year contract with the Panthers on Tuesday morning, smearing the Giants organization’s sullied reputation even further, something changed.

Judge, 38, who had an offer to coach his alma mater, Mississippi State, suddenly was reported as the Giants’ next head coach to succeed the fired Pat Shurmur.

Perhaps ownership made an executive decision.

In doing so, they selected Judge before even interviewing Patriots offensive co-ordinator Josh McDaniels on Wednesday. McDaniels wasn’t interested in the position anyway, however, as long as Dave Gettleman remained in power as GM, according to sources.

When Rhule chose Carolina without even flying to New Jersey to hear the Giants out, one source said: “What does that tell you?”

The answer: Candidates such as Rhule were wary of just how much say they would have running the Giants as long as Gettleman remained.