Giants fans are happy to have a real head coach leading the way for Big Blue these days. We’re talking about reigning NFL Coach of the Year, Brian Daboll. His 2022 success was even more pronounced after the absolute disaster that was the Joe Judge era.
Judge somehow hooked on with the New England Patriots last year to be their quarterbacks coach. However, things didn’t exactly go well between him and Pats QB Mac Jones. Here’s what the Boston Herald reported at the end of last season:
As (Matt) Patricia came under outside fire as the face of the offense, Judge drew increasing criticism from within. (Bill) Belichick would blast him in practice, and it wasn’t uncommon for Judge and (Mac) Jones to trade profanity-laced outbursts. Jones’ trust in his position coach was effectively non-existent.
“Mac didn’t like him,” one source said. “At all.”
“(Judge) would speak extra loudly in meetings, trying to project like he was the guy,” another source said. “And I think that kind of rubbed people the wrong way.”
“A lot of people were frustrated with (Judge),” a third added.
You’d think this meant Judge would’ve been out of a job as soon as the season finished, right? Right?! Not so much. For some odd and unknown reason, New England has decided to keep him around. Here’s what the organization is doing with him this year, according to the Boston Globe:
Joe Judge is listed as an assistant head coach, and is grouped with the defensive coaches. Last year, he was Mac Jones’s quarterbacks coach. Now it appears the team is putting Judge on the other side of the ball, as far away from Jones as possible.
Keeping Judge and Jones as far away from each other as possible sounds like a good idea. But still, one has to wonder what kind of value the Patriots think he provides to keep him employed at all. I mean, it can’t be good when the head coach is openly getting on your case during practice, right?
This is anyone’s guess at this point. Now we just get to wait and see what kind of dumpster fire he creates in 2023.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
