The New York Giants’ last two head coaches didn’t even come close to fulfilling their contracts with the club. Ben McAdoo was fired 12 games into his second season and Pat Shurmur was dumped after his second full season after winning just 10 of 32 games.
Shurmur has three years left on his contract, while McAdoo’s contract with the Giants is reportedly expiring this year. The Giants don’t want to get into the habit of paying coaches not to coach, so Joe Judge — who they hired on Thursday to be their next head coach — will likely be around for the duration of the five-year deal he reportedly signed with Big Blue.
“I don’t like to go into the contract details. But hopefully, he’ll be here for a while,” Giants co-owner John Mara said on Thursday.
Mara was asked about how Judge, a coach no other team had interest in, got on the Giants’ radar.
“He was somebody that a number of people had called us to tell us about. I was aware of who he was. Again, when somebody goes from Alabama and then ends up on Bill Belichick’s staff, your radar has to go off there and say, ‘This guy might be something special.’ Now, did I expect him to be a head coach this soon? No, I didn’t. But again, I’m glad that we were the only team that interviewed him because I’m glad that we got him,” he said.
Judge’s knockout performance at his introductory presser should bolster him for a few years as much of the fan base was won over. They are willing to show patience with Judge as the Giants finally might get this rebuild right.
“I’m painfully aware that we’ve lost some credibility with our fans over the last few years, when you have three years like that consecutively,” Mara said. “We need to win their trust back. I think with this new hire, we’re on the right track to doing that. We have a healthy cap situation, we have the fourth pick in the draft, we’ve got some good, young players coming back. We obviously need more, but I think we have the right guy to lead us now.”
So, get used to Joe Judge, Giant fans. He’s going nowhere.
