There have been plenty of bad coaching hires in the NFL so far this century, and the New York Giants are guilty of making several of them.
Since parting ways with Tom Coughlin after 12 seasons in 2015, the Giants have had five head coaches, and none have succeeded in turning the franchise back into a winner.
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The Giants initially replaced Coughlin with Ben McAdoo, an offensive guru who simply couldn’t meet the moment. He lasted less than two seasons, giving way to defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo late in Year 2 after flubbing the Eli Manning benching. A 2-10 record at the time sealed his fate.
The Giants next hired Pat Shurmur, one of the league’s top assistants, but he failed as well, going 9-23 over two seasons. Shurmur was followed by New England special teams coordinator Joe Judge in 2020. Judge fared no better, going 10-23 over two seasons before getting canned.
Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports rated Judge’s hiring by the Giants as the 17th worst in his list of the top 25 worst NFL coaching hires of this century.
Was he miscast as a special teams coordinator-turned-head coach, destined for trouble coming from the buttoned-up Bill Belichick-run New England Patriots to the big-market New York Giants? Was he unfairly saddled with poor support for new quarterback Daniel Jones? His in-game decision-making didn’t appear to help matters, and the minute you insist to reporters that you’re not running “some clown show,” well, you’re usually past the point of no return.
Let’s not forget that Judge was not afforded the “head-start” that all new head coaches get in their first season due to COVID-19 restrictions. But Benjamin is right. Judge was not up to the task, and without a star quarterback to rescue him, he was pretty much doomed from the start.
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This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants hiring Joe Judge among worst coaching decisions this century