New York Giants rookie Coach Joe Judge has had quite an initiation into the NFL head coaching world.
First, he had a boisterous player in WR Golden Tate that told everyone who could hear him that he was disappointed with the amount of targets he was getting.
He handled that by benching Tate against Washington.
Then, he had an alleged disagreement with offensive line coach Marc Colombo that resulted in Colombo being abruptly dismissed last week.
And sources say there is still turmoil within the organization, specifically among the coaching ranks.
This leads many to believe there could be a mass firing of assistants in the offseason.
The assistant most likely to be fired is offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.
It doesn’t appear that any tension between Garrett and Judge has to do with Colombo who came over from Dallas with Garrett.
Joe Judge won’t get into specifics about where it went wrong with Marc Colombo. Mentions several times he’s just doing what’s in “best interest of the team.” Asked about relationship with OC Jason Garrett, who is strongly connected to Colombo, Judge says it has not been affected.
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) November 23, 2020
It’s A Performance Issue
The Giants are 3-7, and the offense ranks near the bottom in both Pro Football Focus and Football Outsiders’ DVOA rankings.
Losing RB Saquon Barkley to a torn ACL in Week 2 certainly didn’t help the offensive cause of the Giants.
But it’s likely if the Giants to continue to flounder that Garrett could be the fall guy.
Good News For Garrett
All is not lost, and Garrett could keep his job if the Giants win the NFC East which is still very possible.
QB Daniel Jones is playing better, and the offense has improved as the team put together a two game winning streak over divisional rivals Washington and Philadelphia before their bye in Week 11.
In Week 12, the Giants face the Cincinnati Bengals who last week lost their star QB Joe Burrow for the remainder of 2020 and beyond.
Then, they have a tough stretch of games with Seattle, Arizona, Cleveland, and Baltimore.
The Judge/Garrett Relationship
Though it seemed to get off to a weird start, each admired the other at the start of the season.
OC Jason Garrett said it's been a great experience working for Joe Judge. He was a "big draw" for Garrett to come to the Giants. They value the same things. "Alignment in an organization is critical."
— Dan Salomone (@Dan_Salomone) September 10, 2020
The weird start had to do with the timing of the Giants requesting to interview Garrett (from the Cowboys) for the OC position before finalizing the deal for Judge to be the head coach.
There was never clarity who got to the Giants first which made everyone wonder how much say Judge had in picking his staff.
Coach Firings
Many believe there will be a lot of head coaches dismissed at the end of the 2020 season.
If that’s true, the assistants on staff for those coaches will also be unemployed.
Using that logic, Coach Judge would have a lot of candidates to choose from should he decide to fire Jason Garrett or others on his staff.
Of course, the best way to ensure job security is by winning so that’s the task at hand for Joe Judge, Jason Garrett, and the New York Giants.
NEXT: Tension Among Giants Coaching Staff, More Changes Could Come
