“We’re going to put a product on the field that the people of this city and region are going to be proud of because this team will represent this area. We will play fast, we will play downhill, we will play aggressive. We will punch you in the nose for 60 minutes, we will play every play like it has a history and a life of its own, with a relentless, competitive attitude. We will play fundamentally sound, we will not beat ourselves.”
These words from Joe Judge during his introductory presser as Giants head coach back on Jan. 9th, 2020 set the tone for the new direction to which he was going to take the organization. Some could say they sounded Tom Coughlin-like or that this was just classic football coach hobnob, however it became clear very quickly that Judge’s philosophy for his Giants team wasn’t a farce.
The impact on and off the field became apparent as soon as that offseason began. The Giants and Judge crafted a solid core of assistant coaches and coordinators from different walks of the NFL to be the teachers of success for the players. Front office personnel negotiated diligently to recruit and sign some of the best veteran players on both sides of the ball who exuded the Judge philosophy and could get the younger players to buy into the system.
While the Giants found huge strides in their defensive game in year one behind defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, there was much left to be desired on the offensive front. As in recent seasons, the team continued to struggle in developing any sort of offensive consistency and lacked a real offensive threat to put opposing defenses on notice after Saquon Barkley went down with an ACL injury. The offensive line was still a messy work in progress, and it was just one of a few factors that caused second-year quarterback Daniel Jones to become a turnover machine. All of this together led to a disappointing 6-10 record in 2020 and the Giants having to rely on a division rival to decide their final fate in early January.
Now, as Joe Judge and Big Blue prepare to begin their 2021 campaign in just under two weeks, one of those woeful factors from 2020 still looms as a metaphorical question mark. One who must prove, not only for the team’s success but for his own fate, that he can rise to the occasion and be the long-term answer for the New York Giants.
Daniel Jones.
In my inaugural piece for Talking Points Sports, I begin my focused coverage of the New York Giants organization by providing a preview of the 2021 season, particularly through the lens of one player whose ultimate time to prove he’s the answer for the Giants has come—the starting quarterback Daniel Jones. The Duke product’s first two seasons in blue had flashes of hope, but his day one rookie demons have stuck around and prevented him from fully flourishing in the pocket. Can he fix those troubles and carry the Giants to a double digit win season, the first NFC East title since 2016, and the extension of his time in New York?
Read the full piece here