In the aftermath of Joe Judge‘s dismissal from the Giants, new details have emerged regarding his meeting with ownership and their desire for congruency with the new general manager. Judge himself has also spoken publicly for the first time since learning his fate. 
[Related: Giants Fire Joe Judge]
Majority owner John Mara detailed his frustration with the situation in a press conference, detailing why the decision was ultimately made to fire Judge. When asked, Mara admitted that “he has never been this embarrassed by the state of his franchise”, as noted by ESPN’s Jordan Raanan. Mara noted that flashpoints such as Judge’s 11-minute post-game rant after the loss to the Bears and consecutive quarterback sneaks in the regular season finale played a small role in the decision to fire him.
Ultimately, is seems the need for a new GM drove the decision to move on from Judge more than anything else. Raanan notes that “the move to dismiss Judge seems to largely have been made to give the new GM flexibility [in the HC hiring process]”, although the team is not looking at whomever fills the two vacancies as a package deal. Mara used the word “rushed” to describe the hiring of now-retired GM Dave Gettleman in 2017, and stressed that the team’s approach will be more meticulous this time.
Still, there is a clear desire for the new coach and general manager to be “on the same page”, according to a tweet from SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano. He adds that Judge talked with ownership about GM candidates, and that Judge “thought there would be even more discussions, that he’d be part of the process”. Obviously that wasn’t the case, as Mara felt the only way forward was to “completely [blow] it up and [start] all over again”, even though he believes in Judge’s abilities as a coach.
In his first public remarks since being fired, Judge issued a statement which reads in part, “I want to express how truly grateful I am for the opportunity to be the head coach of the New York Giants. Thank you to the Mara and Tisch families, to the organization and incredible support staff and to the fans… It was a privilege to represent these people during the past two years“.
With regards to the other members of his staff, he added, “I also want to express my appreciation to the coaching staff… I am proud to have worked with the group of men we had and grateful for each and every one of them”. He also addressed the players, saying, “To the current Giants players, thank you most of all… I am so proud of you, grateful for you, and I believe in you“.
Judge concluded with, “On behalf of me and my family, we leave New York with the utmost gratitude for the community, the organization, the people and the team. Thank you“. No candidates to replace him have been named as of yet.
Another NE that flamed out on his own. Yet McDaniels, Flores, and Mayo are all considered front liners this offseason. McDaniels last year and a half in Den?
Hard to say Flores flamed out on his own though. Agree with McDaniels and most of the rest of the NE coaching tree in the last decade.
I guess you can say he was good at coaching defense, but piss poor at hiring coordinators to run offense and lacked people skills. So, a bit of a flame out.
I’d probably lack people skills, too, if I wanted Hebert and they drafted me Tua. If my job is to win, you’re not helping me by putting me in the best position to do so. So I don’t know how much I’d hold against Flores. I feel he deserves a second chance, and if history repeats, then he could be labeled a flame out.
Bill’s coaching tree is overrated, but not every Bill guy is a bad coach. Flores and Judge for example are nowhere near in the same category.
Flores seems to be an interesting story. I’ve read where he was brash with many players including Tua. He never had a stable coaching staff, always churning coordinators every year. But one take I saw earlier this week, was the owner was mad at him for going on a winning streak in his 1st year and missed out Joe B for the 1st pick.
Reading too many rumors on the joe b thing.
link to larrybrownsports.com
Here is the link. I forgot they mentioned the reporting was from PFT’s Mike Florio so you’re probably right! Dude makes up more conspiracy theories than anyone else I can think of covering the league.
There seem to be a lot of whispers out there about Flores being no fun to be around from a coaching staff viewpoint. I can’t imagine you can win anything meaningful with that going on behind the scenes.
Flores did a good job in Miami. His first year, they were predicted to be the worst team in the league and one of the worst of all time, but he somehow got 5 wins out of them. Then back-to-back winning seasons for a franchise that had only one in the previous ten years before he took over. And they managed 9-8 this year despite one of the worst pass-blocking offensive lines in the league and subpar QB play. He should be a front-runner for a job. As a Giants fan, I’d love it if they hired him.
I’ve always found this interesting as well. Bill doesn’t seem like a super hands-off guy, so any coordinator success is discounted in my book since they were executing his system, likely with some involvement from him.
I think most think that guy can bring BB’s “system” to their team? Which again, seems flawed since it seems like a very delicate system that is very reliant on his skills, personality, and work ethic to hold together.
Thats my long way of saying I agree with you, and it never shocks me to see these guys fail as HC’s.
Don’t forget about Mike Vrabel. He’s doing pretty well.
For the most part you are correct, but I think a large part of it is how frequently members of the Belichick coaching tree are poached. Given the extraordinarily large pool, there’s bound to be more flameouts overall. Vrabel serves as evidence that there do exist coordinators under his guidance worthy of being hired
Vrabel never coached under Belichick, although he was a DC under Bill O’Brien (who was part of Belichick’s tree).
My bad. I could’ve sworn that was the case, but I should’ve fact-checked first.
Nevertheless, Flores was fine and as a COACH, O’Brien wasn’t too bad
It takes a lot to make Mara more embarrassed than Ben McAdoo did.
McAdoo’s Giants teams played a lot of derp football both when he was OC and then head coach. Not to mention that the Boat Trip occurred on his watch.
I’m thinking the quote sort of includes McAderp, as he says the current state of the franchise is the most disappointing it’s been. I interpreted that as, “we haven’t even posted a winning record in 5 years and have basically been the doormat of the NFC.” In other words, the disappointment is due to cumulative failure; not necessarily just because of Judge. Could be wrong though
Mara may not like QB sneaks but if Pisarcik had stuck to running one the Miracle in the Meadowlands would never have happened.
“ Rushed” to hire Gutterman. That tells you all you need to know about ownership and their judgement.