New York Giants incoming head coach Joe Judge is not Bill Belichick. Nor is he Nick Saban. By admission, he’s every coach he’s ever played for or worked with.
Which means, Judge is not coming in the door with any type of strategy in mind. He is going to evaluate the roster and see what fits, just like Belichick does. He told reporters that he was not going try to fit “square pegs into round holes.”
What Judge plans to do is create a roster of flexible players who will play situational football and make scheme and strategy adjustments according to the opponent at hand.
“I think every offensive system has to have levels of multiples that we have to be flexible with in both our personnel and our scheme to match up each opponent game by game,” he said. “My overall philosophy is we have to be able to put pressure on opponents, and we have to do that with what we have available and what they don’t do well. So, that includes being versatile and multiple in what you do.”
And on defense?
“It’s the same across the board. Listen, we’re going to play whatever is best for our team and our personnel. 3-4, 4-3, man coverage, zone coverage, we’ll find out what fits us best and we’ll wait until we play against our opponents. Running the ball, throwing the ball, it’s, again, whatever is best week by week by opponent is how we’ll address it,” he said.
While most coaches try to force a system or scheme down their players’ throats, Judge is taking a different approach. He feels he can coach any style of football. As long as the fundamentals are in place and the players are all on the same page, the scheme won’t matter.
The last two seasons, the Giants were trying to cubbyhole their roster into the schemes of Pat Shurmur and James Bettcher with little success. Judge plans on leveraging each player’s strengths and finding the right roles for them.
“We’re going to look at the best path, and that could change week by week. So, we want to build in versatility with our players and be able to use multiples on all sides of the ball,” he said.
