After helping the New England Patriots win three Super Bowl titles, Giants head coach Joe Judge was tasked with turning around a franchise that has missed the playoffs in seven of the last eight seasons.
If Judge has learned anything from Bill Belichick – or Nick Saban – it’s that disciplined teams usually win. And you can’t have discipline without consequences – or, in this case, laps.
Judge was reportedly making players – and coaches – run laps for mistakes, but he set the record straight Friday on CBS Sports Radio.
“I’ve never asked a coach to run a lap at all – ever,” Judge said on Tiki & Tierney. “We run laps as reminders, not as punishment. There’s consequence for what we do on the field. If you have a turnover, you’re going to come off. The other team’s going to have the ball. If you make a mental error, you’ve got to make sure you that you lock in and focus in. These are professional athletes we’re talking about. Jogging a lap around the field isn’t the biggest thing.”
Either way, the Giants have a brutal opening-season schedule. They open against the Steelers on Monday Night Football on Sept. 14, before hitting the road in three of their next four: at Bears, against 49ers, at Rams, and at Cowboys. All of those teams finished 8-8 or better in 2019.
That showdown with the Cowboys is especially noteworthy, as Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett will make his return to Dallas, where he served as head coach for a decade.
“Jason’s doing a phenomenal job of really shaping this offense and building around the players we have,” Judge said. “That, to me, is always the most important thing. [It’s] not what do you have in your playbook; it’s who do you have on the field to play with? We’ve been together now with these players for a couple weeks on the field and you’re finding out more and more about what these guys can do – maybe things you haven’t seen on tape before. It’s our priority as coaches not to put them in bad situations. Find out what they do well, let them do that, find a way to be creative and kind of let them do that through different camouflaged settings. So I’m really liking where our players are coming out and evolving. I’m loving the way that the offense is taking shape right now.”