New York Giants fire OL coach Marc Colombo in surprise move

In a surprise move on Wednesday, the New York Giants fired offensive line coach Marc Colombo. While the line started out the 2020 regular season with problems across the board, the last few weeks have seen significant progression, especially with left tackle Andrew Thomas and guard Shane Lemieux. Following Will Hernandez’s bout with COVID-19, the Giants made a few changes, taking to a rotational method and utilizing several different players.

Oddly, Colombo and his group were seeing positive momentum, but as head coach Joe Judge stated on Wednesday, he doesn’t believe in momentum and proceeded to fire the coach and help develop the unit on his own.

According to GMFB on NFL Network, Judge has devoted more time to helping coach the line recently, which could be an indication of how poor Colombo was doing. If the line saw success under judge the past few weeks, he might have realized the weakness was Colombo and acted accordingly.

This method is very Bill Belichick-ian, as Judge saw a weakness on his team and decided to spend more time helping in that area. That clearly showed him everything he needed to see with Colombo and his methods, moving on from the former Dallas OL coach.

The Giants are bringing in Dave DeGuglielmo to replace him, who coached the great Colts’ OL in 2018. DeGuglielmo joined the Giants’  staff under head coach Tom Coughlin, who served as a graduate assistant for Boston College 13 years earlier. During his tenure, the Giants made the playoffs for consecutive years and won a Super Bowl, setting a franchise record for rushing yards and yards per carry in 2008.

With the DeGuglielmo wanting to make a return to the NFL, this was a perfect opportunity for the Giants to hire one of the best available. While Colombo was expected to be effective, it seems as if Judge had a different idea.