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New York Giants head coach Joe Judge and no. 8 Daniel Jones celebrate their team’s 23-19 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
The New York Giants bounced back from a terrible 1-7 start to 2020 with a record 6-10 and second place in the NFC East. Additionally, their quarterback finished the year on a high note, completing 68.0 percent of his passes in a win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 17. In other words, the arrow seems to point to the G-men entering the off-season.
So it remains to be seen if Daniel Jones is able to get the Big Blue over the hump and straighten out a team that has lost by double digits in six of the last seven seasons. This opinion is at least shared by the masses. But don’t you dare bring head coach Joe Judge into this group.
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Coach of Judge Daniel Jones
The referee joined the Boomers and Gio on WFAN on Tuesday, where he discussed everything from Giants outfit and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to Wild Card weekend on the bench with his son to more current issues like whether Daniel Jones is the right quarterback.
Specifically with Daniel, and I told him about this situation at the beginning of the year, I said to him, I said: You see, part of what we have to evaluate this year is that I have to evaluate you. I needed to see if he was really the answer and if we could build with him, the judge said in reference to those who criticized him for not naming names when he spoke to the media about certain readers.
From what we can hear, the judge’s questions about whether Jones is the kind of man New York can build with are no longer relevant. Despite a mediocre performance in 2020, where he made just 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and his BQ score is down 7.3% from the previous year, Judge seems fully committed to Jones’ path for the long haul.
There was a time during the year when you could see that he had different characteristics that the team responded to and his level of play was high, Judge said. Look, we can discuss a lot of things in terms of statistical conclusions, this and that, but I’ll tell you, if you look at a guy and how he leads the caucus, if you look at how he leads the offense, if you look at how he adjusts game plans, if you see the level of difficulty he plays with, If you see him go off the field every day – and that’s saying a lot because our guys empty the tank every day – you look at him and you say Hey, this guy gives us confidence to get ready with him because we know he’s going to be ready. We know he will be competitive and we have seen improvements in him.
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The judge praised the Colt, which replaced McCoy.
Barring an extremely unpleasant blockbuster for a disgruntled Deshaun Watson or a surprise on draft day, the Giants will almost certainly move forward with Daniel Jones at quarterback.
However, the question of who will support it remains open.
Veteran Colt McCoy was the team’s number two pick in 2020 and even made two starts in the final five weeks of the season due to Jones’ multiple injuries. Although the Giants split in two, McCoy won some fans in the locker room for his play and work ethic.
When they called his number, I think the team really cared about Colt because they saw how hard he worked every day in practice and how much of a team player he was, Judge said.
With Mr McCoy’s one-year contract expiring and reaching 35 years at the start of next season, questions have been raised about the future relationship between the two parties. Nevertheless, the judge is more than happy to have an extra coach on the field.
I think one of the funny things is that the defense had such a close relationship with Colt because he played our defense in practice a lot and gave us a great comeback as a coach, McCoy said. We would do things, whether it was a third down attempt or a red zone game plan, we would sit down with the Colts after practice. Between him, me and Pat Graham, he gave us some kind of insight– hey, I see what you’re doing here, I can see that the coverage is based on this guy’s alignment, or this disguise is hard for me to understand. So he gave us a lot of feedback, and the defense guys were really working with him on a daily basis. Colt didn’t just go there to read the map [of the scout team]; he went there to make a match and try to win the exercise.
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