New York Giants head coach Joe Judge comes with a major endorsement. Nobody in the NFL carries more weight then Bill Belichick.
There was some (wild) speculation that Bill Belichick could be a surprise candidate for the New York Giants head-coaching job. That preposterous idea never took shape, but the Giants did call Belichick. According to Tom Rock of Newsday, they wanted his opinion on his young special teams coordinator Joe Judge.
The Giants did put a call in to Bill Belichick about their head coach vacancy… but it wasn't to lure him back to NY. I'm told Bill gave a glowing recommendation to the Giants on Joe Judge. That carried a lot of weight.
— Tom Rock (@TomRock_Newsday) January 7, 2020
Belichick has had a number of his assistants hired to head-coaching jobs in the past. He has four former assistants as current NFL head coaches, and 10 former assistants have held head-coaching positions.
Judge is joined by Bill O’Brien of the Houston Texans, Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins, and Matt Patricia of the Detroit Lions. That trio hasn’t had all that much success thus far.
Of those three only O’Brien has been to the playoffs and he has the weakest connection to Belichick. He was a Patriots assistant for four years, but he was the head coach at Penn State for two years on his own before he took the Texans job.
Out of the nine coaches under Belichick’s coaching tree who’ve coached in the NFL, only two have a career record over .500, O’Brien and Al Groh.
Belichick’s assistants have a combined record of 191-271-1 as head coaches. His coaching tree does not paint a pretty picture. Judge is now the 10th member of this illustrious coaching tree to go onto be an NFL head coach.
So, while Belichick may have given his blessing, it’s important to note his past. This situation isn’t much different from when Peyton Manning vouched for Adam Gase last year.
The only way to tell what kind of coach Judge will be is to see him on the field. New York Giants fans are going to have to wait until September to for the on-field product. Until then, everyone should reserve judgment on the hire.
