It’s going to be interesting few months for Giants coach Joe Judge. The rookie coach is going into his first draft next week, but unfortunately, won’t be able to go through the normal OTA’s that come with the draft in the coming days after.
That’s just one issue Judge will be dealing with as he tries to get ready for his first season, hopefully in September.
“All we’re concerned about at this point, really, is getting a foundation ready through whatever means it ends up being,” Judge said on a conference call Wednesday. “We’ve been preparing for this now for some time, for these meetings to go virtual, we’ve got to communicate with our players through the conditioning program and have everything set up so that we can work with them. I think the advantage goes to whoever is best prepared from this point forward.”
The good news is that the Giants are in the same boat as every other NFL team. The bad news is that they need all the help they can get.
The Giants winning prediction for the season was set at 6.5 games favoring the “under”, meaning the team won’t come out with a victory in more than 6 games, even though this could look a bit complex, it’s actually pretty straight forward, here is a good article on how to read the sports odds in case you want to learn more in the topic.
So to improve on that number, the Giants need to make a splash in the draft next week. With the No. 4 overall pick, they are in a position to either get that shutdown offensive lineman or an impact defensive player, both of which is a definite need.
“I think that when you’re looking at players in the draft, first off, you’re always looking for the best player available and to me that means long-term upside. If you think you’re taking someone who is ‘pro ready,’”, Judge said, “what all of these rookies find out the second they step in the building is none of them are pro ready. That’s why they need the spring program, that’s why they need training camp, that’s why they go through growing pains as rookies. To me, it’s about finding the upside of the player, of looking down the long scope of a career and seeing who’s going to be the best player with the most upside for you.”
At No. 4 they will probably get a plug and play player that will start. However, the Giants have had a history of blowing top picks so nothing is definite.
Without a traditional off-season program, Judge will have to rely on virtual meetings and players working out on their own, with team guidance from afar. Until the all-clear happens and camps open, there still is a risk.
At the same time, he knows his players will be prepared.
“One thing I’ll tell you that I’m very confident in is when we start dealing with the players, there’s no generation that’s been more prepared for this offseason than the ones we’re going to deal with now,” he said. “They are very technologically savvy, they are going to have a lot of feedback that we’re going to get from them that we’re going to rely on in terms of how we can improve our meetings, to do what helps them. So, everybody has adjusted. I think if the worst thing we’re dealing with right now, to be honest with you, is working out of our basement, we’ve got it pretty good.”
We will see how that translates over the next few months and how prepared the rookie coach will be as Judge enters his first season.
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