New York Giants head coach Joe Judge made some big waves after taking over the position, but not everyone around the league gets his impact on the organization just yet. This offseason, there seems to be an increase in national media outlets taking a look at what’s going on with the Giants and assuming that Judge is more poser than real. Particularly, his ‘football guy’ persona has been brought up in multiple articles by now as something that’s more laughable than meaningful.
The latest of those articles comes from CBS Sports, where Cody Benjamin ranked Judge in the lower portion of the league’s head coaches and alleged that Judge’s tough mentality is an act – and one that, according to him, borders on silliness.
26. Joe Judge (Giants)
Season: 2nd with Giants and as HC
Career record: 6-10 (.375)
Playoff record: N/ASometimes his no-nonsense tough-guy act borders on silliness, like when he condemned the Eagles for refusing to get his own team into the playoffs. But the disciplinary spunk had the G-Men flashing surprise confidence throughout 2020. The question is whether he’s got what it takes to shepherd offensive growth, either with Daniel Jones at QB or someone else.
Is Judge actually overrated?
The take is somewhat understandable for someone that hasn’t paid attention to the Giants in depth – but those following the team more closely, of course, will be familiar with the visible changes that happened after Judge took over.
The Giants seemed like they were set to continue on the path of being a perennial loser before they made their most recent coaching change. The team had regressed under Ben McAdoo and shown little to no improvement under Pat Shurmur, leaving the Giants selecting high in the draft each year but not quite in a position to actually stay competitive deep into the season.
It’s true that Judge did arrive at a time when the Giants were willing to make more aggressive moves to get better, but his influence on upping the level of play from the team’s existing talent can’t be understated.
From the outside looking in, others might claim Judge is simply putting on an act. But without his presence – tough guy persona and all – it’s doubtful that there would be this much hope around the team going into next season.
With a better roster to work with this year, this may finally be the point when Judge gets the respect from around the league that didn’t come when the Giants hired him or after his rookie season in charge.