NEW YORK — Golden Tate said Tuesday on national television that Joe Judge’s emphasis on conditioning gets players hurt.
On Wednesday, Judge uncharacteristically dialed back a typical 2-hour practice to a 55-minute walk-through and admitted to dropping conditioning out of last Thursday’s session, too.
“Maybe that was a mistake,” Judge said pointedly, admitting he was being a “wise ass” in response to criticism of his program.
Simultaneously, Judge took the unusual step of bringing prepared notes and statistics to the podium to defend how he trains players “with the emphasis of No. 1 keeping them healthy.”
“You go back to soft tissue injuries in 2020, it was the lowest this organization had had in the previous three seasons,” Judge said. “Our hamstring injuries last year specifically were half the league average. While the NFL average [on missed time for soft-tissue injuries] went up, we reduced it by previous years.
“We had the second fewest missed practices in the NFL last year, the third fewest missed games, excluding the I.R. And we were among the fewest players last year to go to I.R. that didn’t return. Translation: our guys are healthy enough to return after missing some time.”
Tate, who played for the Giants last season and is a free agent looking for a job, had said Tuesday on NFL Network that Judge’s “conditioning can be a little bit too much” and that “guys started getting soft-tissue injuries” because of it.
“I mean this is a 17-game season now, that is lonnnng. Long,” Tate said. “Before you can even get over the soreness [from] last game, you’re practicing. I would chill on that.”
Whether Tate was delivering a message for players on the current team or not, it was curious timing coming off of Sunday’s hamstring injuries to wide receivers Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton.
Neither Shepard nor Slayton practiced on Wednesday, and neither seems likely to play on Sunday in New Orleans.
Judge appeared keenly aware of recent criticism of his coaching on Wednesday, too. He even anticipated a question about a grueling practice from last week.
“In terms of last week’s practice specifically — which I know the next question is gonna be about — actually last week’s practice was a little bit less than we’ve done in the past,” Judge said. “It’s basically the same format of what we’ve done on Wednesdays and Thursday practices in the past. We’ve pulled back a little bit.”
“We work very hand in hand with our medical department, our sports science department, to make sure with individual players what their loads are,” he added.
Judge said that “the only thing I did differently in conditioning last week was I didn’t condition on Thursday. Maybe that was a mistake.”
Asked later why he said that, Judge replied with a smile: “Just being a wise ass.”
Kenny Golladay and Devontae Booker both said Wednesday that they understand the value of Judge’s conditioning, even if Booker hadn’t done anything like it before in Denver and Oakland.
“I really don’t have a comment on that,” Golladay said. “At the end of the day we gotta go out there and work. The conditioning, we’re gonna need it anyway. Those guys get tired in the fourth and I feel like we’re still running in the fourth quarter. So it helps.”
Booker, asked whether the conditioning yields positive or negative results, replied: “I don’t know honestly. I just come out here and do what I need to do. The conditioning stuff is only making us better as a team and getting us better for the game.
“We gotta be out there anyways for four quarters every game,” he said, “and I guess the conditioning and the stuff that we do on the field is only making us better.”
Booker said: “I’ve never done it before [any] other place I’ve been. Some people got a philosophy and way of doing things. And if we’re gonna go condition, we’re just gonna go out there and condition.”
Judge said it was “pre-planned” last week that this Wednesday’s workload would be lightened. But the Giants didn’t announce a change to the schedule until Tuesday.
He said he hadn’t heard complaints from any players on the team.
“No, not outside of you guys,” he said. “But in terms of our philosophy for this program and what we do: this is not an experimental program. This is a time-tested program that’s worked that I’ve been a part of at multiple levels. I’ve been a part of this with great success. And it’s been a program that’s kept players healthy.”
Tate granted that Judge “has a reason for why he does everything a certain way” and said he “enjoyed” Judge despite their “little run-in early on” in the 2020 season.
That was a reference to Tate being suspended for Week 9 and left off the team’s trip to Washington entirely, his punishment for showing up Daniel Jones and the coaching staff by demanding the ball during the previous week’s Monday night loss to Tampa. Tate’s wife also had blasted the Giants on Instagram.
Judge certainly wouldn’t cater to criticism from an outsider about his program, but recent changes to the Giants’ practice schedule certainly make it seem as if Judge is responding to some sort of feedback on what his players need or prefer.
This is all a byproduct of constant losing, though. If the Giants were winning, it would reinforce Judge’s methods. Their 0-3 start doesn’t help anyone.
