Every offseason, new coaches are hired, and teams hope to have found their next Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, or Mike Tomlin. Certain teams strike while others make another change in just a few short years.
Pro Football Network’s Dallas Robinson ranked the top 10 worst head coaching hires in NFL history earlier this week.
Since 2016, the New York Giants have seen four head coaches roaming the sidelines and perhaps none more polarizing than Joe Judge.
The hiring of Judge comes in sixth on the list.
Robinson writes:
It’s a similar story for Joe Judge, another former Patriots assistant who unraveled after leaving Belichick’s side. A 10-23 overall record tells the story of Judge’s tenure with the Giants, but so does one specific play from the end of his stint with Big Blue.
In what ended up being Judge’s final game as New York’s head coach (the 2021 regular-season finale), Judge called for consecutive quarterback sneaks on 2nd-and-11 and 3rd-and-9 while the Giants were backed up against their own goal line. New York had no faith it could execute even a basic offensive play, a terrible reflection on its head coach.
Although every pre-Week 17 report had suggested Judge’s job was safe, the Giants fired him after that cowardly display. Belichick then shockingly tasked Judge and Patricia with overhauling the Patriots’ 2022 offense, and we know how that went.
In 2020, the Giants hired Judge, who previously coached under Bill Belichick in New England as the wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator.
Unlike the two previous head coaches, Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur, who both previously served as offensive coordinators, Judge’s hiring led many to question whether the young coach was ready for such a big jump, given the history of special teams coaches moving into head coaching positions.
Unfortunately for the Giants, the move did little to improve the franchise. In two seasons (2020-2021), Judge compiled a 10-23 record with finishes of second and fourth in the NFC East.
Under Judge’s direction, the Giants’ offense finished second to last in back-to-back seasons.
In his final game with the Giants in 2021, during Week 17 against Washington, the low point of the Judge era was reached. The offense was pinned back just outside the end zone, and the Giants ran back to back QB sneaks from their 2- and 4-yard lines, the latter on third-and-9. The Giants had given up a safety the week before against the Chicago Bears when pinned near their own goal line.
The Giants decided to part ways with Judge just a few days following the conclusion of the 2021 season.