Jan. 8: The hiring is official, per a team announcement.
Jan. 7: The Giants are finalizing a deal to hire Patriots wide receivers/special teams coach Joe Judge as their new head coach, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter) reports. This news comes moments after the Panthers hired Matt Rhule, who was believed to be the Giants’ top target. 
Interestingly, Schefter hears that the deal was in the works on Monday night, before Rhule shook hands with Carolina brass. That was “another reason” why Rhule accepted the Panthers’ offer, according to Schefter, which indicates that the Baylor head coach might not have been the Giants’ first choice after all.
Before agreeing to a seven-year deal with the Panthers that could be worth up to $70MM, Rhule called the Giants and gave them an opportunity to match the offer, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter) hears. When the Giants declined, Rhule 86’d his scheduled interview with the G-Men, and the Giants shifted their focus to Judge.
The Giants considered a whole host of candidates for their head coaching vacancy, as shown in PFR’s Head Coaching Search Tracker. Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Ravens defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale, Patriots OC Josh McDaniels, and Cowboys assistant Kris Richard were also on the radar, and the Giants were reportedly seeking an interview with ex-Cowboys HC Jason Garrett. Garrett, apparently, won’t be interviewing for the top job, however – Judge has been tapped as the Giants’ next head coach.
Judge, 38, was being groomed by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick for an even larger role down the line. He also had an opportunity to return to his alma mater, Mississippi State, as their head coach. Ultimately, he chose to become the new head coach of the Giants, replacing the recently-dismissed Pat Shurmur.
Judge joined the Pats in 2012 after a three-year stint as a special teams assistant at Alabama. In 2015, he was elevated to ST coordinator and, in 2019, he was also given the WRs coach title. Although he doesn’t have the star power of the Giants’ other reported candidates, the club believes that he has the right temperament and energy to handle the pressure that comes with the New York market.
Judge becomes the latest Belichick protege to join the head coaching ranks. In the past few years, Mike Vrabel (Titans), Matt Patricia (Lions), and Brian Flores (Dolphins) have all left the nest and climbed the ladder.
The Redskins, Cowboys, Panthers, and Giants have all filled their head coaching vacancies, leaving the Browns as the lone team in search of a new leader. The Browns saw a few of their targets go elsewhere, but, on the plus side, they can now afford to take their time in the search.
Wrong Pats coach, Gettleman
It fits because Gettleman is the wrong GM.
So dumb
He’ll be gone in two years. Hope I’m wrong.
Why does it seem like the coaching hires this year are underwhelming?
It seems like the teams are rushing to pick someone.
Are the browns the only team left to hire a coach? It seems like they can take their time and really decide who they want.
I think they all like who they got, and excluding this one I think they’ve all been good hires.
Based on how brutal the patriots wide receivers were this year this is good new for the pats.
I was gonna say the same thing. Giants enjoy a good specials teams play but terrible wr play
He was more ST coach too, WR’s were supposedly dumped on him this past year.
Giants felt the heat of competition: Mississippi State.
Lol wut?
How is it that a wide receivers coach is a logical option for a head coaching vacancy?
I didn’t get that either. Generally, isn’t an OC, DC, or college HC?
Usually they are the ones that get hired. The only ST coach to go straight to HC and be successful is John Harbaugh
Marv Levy says hi
Marv also had 2 CFL championship titles on his resume before he broke through as an NFL head coach.
Yeah, and Belicheck (as an ex-special teams coordinator himself) thinks that is wrong. This guy is his protegee
So does Mike Ditka
Um…Andy Reid?
Judge only just started being a Wr coach. Mostly ST coach.
He was also the special teams coach. As a Giants fan, I’ll reserve judgement because I want to be optimistic, but it could easily be another in the long line of Pats assistants to flame out. I don’t immediately hate it as much as I would if they’d made Garrett the HC (though the rumor is he might be OC).
the only positive is that it’s not Garrett
weird that we’ve never heard of this guy and there are a few guys with solid resumes that were not hired
Everyone wants the next Sean Mcvay.
McVay was offensive minded, judge is more rounded (mostly ST).
Despite my initial concerns about his inexperience, I’m willing to give him a shot because none of the other candidates were that impressive to me.
Who? This obviously came from Left Field.
Two things stand out to me as positives with this higher. First his youth at only 38 years old and second he has been groomed by both Nick Saban and Bill Belichick and you have to think he will go into this job with the same philosophies and I think it worked out for Alabama and New England.
You know that division is trash when the Redskins are making the smartest moves
He’s a good judge of character I heard
Vrabel is not a BeliCHEAT protege.
He coached under O’Brien who is a Belicheat disciple not too mention played for Belicheat.
Thank you for following my preferred name for Belicheat. I forgot Vrabel was with the Texans before he got the Titans job.
Gettleman is working extra hard to get himself out of New York. I guess the next logical step is to use that first round pick on a LS.
Maybe a full back
Mr. Mara, meet your twin,James Dolan! Introduce mr. Gettleman to mr. I. Thomas.
You are crazy. The Giants are a rock solid franchise. They are in a valley right now but they will come out of it. Dolan has been destroying the Knicks for decades.
The Giants saw the success the Yankees had with a guy named Judge and decided to jump on that train
I wish they would have hired Mike Judge…huh huh huh. That would be cool…
The train has left the tracks and the carnage is about to be begin. That hiring was a JOKE.
It almost appears as if Gettleman is working for Vince and the XFL. Signings like this are going to make NY Guardian tickets even more attractive.
How can I complain when I have no clue about his coaching. As long as Garrett isn’t the OC.
Why do they always add Vrabel to Bill’s coaching tree? Vrabel played in NE but he never coached under Bill. It’d be like saying Joey Galloway or David Givens cane from Bill’s tree.
You don’t have to be an assistant to be included in a coaching tree. Mike Ditka’s tree is composed of former players like Ron Rivera, Jeff Fisher, Mike Singletary etc. who were all influenced by the intensity and kick ass approach that Mike embraced.
Oh wow the “kick ass approach”, surprised no other gurus have cracked this code.
Ditka sure kicked some ass in that Ricky Williams draft …
Two Judges in NY!