With an entirely new coaching staff, the NY Giants are at a disadvantage compared to most of the rest of the league while only having virtual practices at their disposal.
You can bet that few were happier about the state of New Jersey announcing that professional sports teams could resume practicing than NY Giants head coach, Joe Judge. Judge has been dealt several curveballs during his early tenure as the head man in charge, but none have been bigger than dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak that has limited the team’s offseason plans to almost nothing.
The ball is now in the NFL’s court as to when team’s can physically reconvene.
It’s so very important for a new head coach to get the opportunity to shake every player’s hand and sit down for a few minutes to get to know them when they take over a new job. It’s also important for them to create a regiment for the team to follow while getting used to their new surroundings.
Joe Judge has gotten to do none of that, as coaches and players (not rehabbing injuries) have been banned from partaking in any physical practices or gatherings since the Coronavirus outbreak in March.
To make things more difficult, Judge retained almost no one from the old NY Giants staff, so every coach in the building will be teaching an entirely new system. That’s difficult to do in a short amount of time and very trying to do over a zoom meeting.
Offensive and defensive packages are difficult to install and as you would guess, the best way to go about teaching them is on a field in a physical capacity.
For teams like the Patriots or Steelers that have had the same head coaches and a lot of the same coaching staffs forever, this conundrum is less challenging as the players will not have to learn an entirely new system and terminology.
You can bet that Joe Judge is chomping at the bit for the league to make the call to allow training camps or practices to begin, as he’s going to have his work cut out for him in a short amount of time to instill the type of program he wants.
How will this affect the offense?
Luckily for the NY Giants, most of the offense is returning from the 2019 team. In that regard, the players will feel comfortable with each other and know each other’s tendencies on the field.
However, Jason Garrett is looking to install a completely new offense and begin working with a new quarterback, so time is of the essence to get things rolling on the practice field.
Daniel Jones has reportedly had his nose buried in his playbook all offseason and been working out hard, and all indications are that most of the players on the team are taking this same approach. That’s a positive step, but every day goes by that the team misses a practice is a disadvantage for Big Blue.
One major problem for the team could be its battle for the center position, as the Giants appear to be focused on moving a natural guard over to play the position. That’s going to take a lot of physical reps with the team and Daniel Jones to master.
Garrett will be looking to install his modified “Air Coryell” offense this offseason, which focuses on vertical routes and is a big change-up from Pat Shurmur’s wast coast type offense.
The players will likely welcome to change as Garrett’s offenses have always produced big numbers, but they simply need to get out onto the field soon to start putting things in motion.
After this week’s ruling, we could actually be seeing practices sooner rather than later.