The past few seasons for the New York Giants have been underwhelming, featuring Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur at the head coaching position. General manager Dave Gettleman has provided assistance in some areas but faltered in others, forcing the Giants to make even more changes to supplement weaknesses.
The theory behind hiring Joe Judge, formerly of New England, is that he brings a winning mentality and philosophy, derived from Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, two of the winningest coaches in football history (college and pro). His ability to evaluate talent and diversify their skills to serve multiple purposes is his specialty, similar to Belichick, who finds value in the most random of players.
This free agency period has shown that the Giants have a model and system they’re attempting to create. However, it’s also clear they’re allocating resources to reinforce their coaching staff. Both Blake Martinez and Kyler Fackrell are familiar with defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, which undoubtedly played a part in signing on with Big Blue.
The New York Giants are trying to create an unpredictable offense:
While the Giants haven’t made any splash signings on offense, they have snagged two players who can leave an impact. Tight end Levine Tiololo is a massive body at 6-8, allowing the Giants to dive back into the 12-personnel sets, which they strayed away from in 2019 due to injury. Both Evan Engram and Rhett Ellison missed significant times, forcing the Giants into 11-personnel sets, which decreased their unpredictability.
Adding running back Dion Lewis should also provide a boost on offense as well. The former Titan and Patriots back is a solid pass-blocker and catcher out of the backfield. Back in 2017, when Judge was featured in New England as well, he posted 896 yards on the ground and 214 through the air. He also posted nine scores, his career-best.
Lewis is a versatile back who can compliment Saqoon Barkley well. I can picture Jason Garrett using them in a two running back set, allowing Daniel Jones to activate his creativity with both options being elite pass catchers. We can hope that the offense has different looks and utilized various systems to brew confusion in the opposing defense — with the pieces they’ve added this offseason, it could suggest just that.