Giants CEO John Mara ‘Excited’ About What Joe Judge Brings to Big Blue

New York Giants, John Mara
Oct 15, 2017; Denver, CO, USA; New York Giants president, CEO, and co-owner John Mara before the game against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Giants had a number of qualified candidates apply for their head coaching vacancy these past two weeks, but it was obvious today that New England Patriots assistant Joe Judge was the man for the job.

The Giants’ brass is smitten with Judge and can’t stop heaping praise upon him. We got our first taste of Judge today at his introductory press conference and were nearly as impressed as one could be, considering this is his first head coaching job on any level.

Giants CEO John Mara was very candid about his feelings for Judge and what he can bring to the dormant Giants.

“I’m just excited about what he brings to the table here. He has a certain poise and presence about him. You guys have pointed out the last couple of years that I’ve had a lot of experience interviewing coach candidates. I’m just telling you, that’s the best interview I’ve ever been a part of right now for a lot of different reasons. When you train under Nick Saban and then you end up on Bill Belichick’s staff, that’s something you take notice of. He’s obviously had great training, a great background. He’s used to winning, he knows what winning looks like, and we’re excited to have him here.”

Mara was asked what moment during Judge’s interview on Monday sold him on the 38 year-old Pennsylvania native.

“I would say it was a little more than halfway through. To be honest with you, I went into the interview not really expecting all that much, just because I didn’t really know him. I certainly knew of him. But the more we went on, the more impressive he became. When we finished, I looked at Dave and Kevin, and we were ecstatic. We said, ‘This is our guy. This has got to be our guy.’ He just had a certain poise. He didn’t have any notes with him. He just was so confident and poised, and had such great knowledge about how to build a winning program. What they did in New England, what they’ve done at Alabama, the people he’s been around, his beliefs, his philosophies. He checked all of the boxes for us.”

Judge has a daunting task in front of him. The Giants are mired in another “wilderness” period and have to learn how to win as a team again.  Judge outlined his vision for the Giants in emphatic fashion. He’s a take-charge guy who will instill discipline and order to a team that has lacked precision and focus under their prior two head coaches, Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo.

“He has a big task. He’s 38 years old and he’s never been a head coach, so yeah, it is going to be a daunting task,” added Mars. “But everything we know about him and everything he showed in our interview with him tells us that he’s ready for it.”

Mara also said that he felt Judge was “somebody that could be a leader” and “someone who had poise and a presence about him, somebody who was a teacher, and somebody who knows what a winning program is supposed to look like.”

Many of these Giants don’t know what that looks like. Hopefully they will find out soon.