Joe Judge’s confidence in Daniel Jones highlights New York Giants culture

Daniel Jones wasn’t perfect in the New York Giants’ loss on Monday. Nonetheless, Joe Judge has unrelenting confidence in his quarterback.

You back up your quarterback, you support your quarterback, you stick by your quarterback’s side.

Joe Judge has only been a head coach for one game in his life, but he already gets it.

“There’s obviously a couple plays to correct and move on from, but man, I’ll tell you, we woke up this morning, I’m glad he’s on our team,” Judge said of Daniel Jones per Howie Kussoy and Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. “I’m very pleased with the way Daniel played. I know the rest of the team feels very confident with him in there calling the signals for us.”

These comments came just one day after the New York Giants‘ 26-16 loss to the Steelers. Judge then echoed that confidence in Jones before Wednesday’s practice, noting he “stood in there like a man” against a talented Steelers pass rush, per the New York Post.

It sort of reminds you of a time when a Giants head coach didn’t possess confidence in his quarterback. Only a few years ago, fans saw the disastrous Ben McAdoo throw the recently retired Eli Manning under the bus multiple times, with the icing on the cake becoming the longtime quarterback’s benching for a Week 13 matchup in Oakland.

The move sent the fanbase and, arguably, the organization up in flames. And sure, it’s an event Giants fans would like to forget and move on from, but a moment in franchise history that’s still relevant today.

Judge’s confidence and willingness to stand by his quarterback, even after a loss and two turnovers that put his total number at 25 in 14 career games, will go a hell of a long way.

The 38-year-old understands that Jones not playing perfect football on Monday was okay — it’s impossible to really be perfect after a lost offseason, lost preseason, and unusual training camp period.

And it wasn’t perfect, you can’t deny that. As was written earlier this week, there was good, bad, and ugly from the second-year quarterback.

The good was his pair of touchdown passes and the ability to stand tall in the pocket. The bad was his second-quarter interception along with his early incomplete pass that should’ve been ruled a fumble — what would’ve been the 19th of his young career. And the ugly, of course, was his interception to Cameron Heyward in the end zone.

But Judge isn’t freaking out; he also sees first and foremost what Jones is playing with: A line that hasn’t formed much chemistry yet, a run game that couldn’t find a spark, and a starting tight end who made a number of mistakes.

Back during that 2017 campaign, Manning didn’t have a dominant run game whatsoever (this was the pre-Saquon Barkley era), no true No. 1 receiver (Odell Beckham Jr. missed 12 games), and an inconsistent offensive line with none other than Ereck Flowers at left tackle.

And even though Manning was always showing up to work, he still received unnecessary criticism from his head coach.

Judge doesn’t seem like he’ll act that way with his quarterback. He knows Jones will do everything he can and then some, and for that, he’ll be by his side. He realizes that supporting his offensive leader will be nothing but a benefit for this organization’s culture, something McAdoo didn’t seem to understand.

Again, he only has one game under his belt as head coach of the New York Giants, but Judge already gets it.