For the third year in a row, a member of Bill Belichick’s staff in New England has left the team to take a head coaching job with another team.
On the heels of Matt Patricia departing to coach the Detroit Lions in 2018 and Brian Flores leaving town to take control of the Miami Dolphins, Joe Judge, who coached on special teams and also handled the team’s wide receivers, is leaving the Patriots to become the coach of the New York Giants.
“New York Giants are finalizing a deal to make Patriots’ wide receivers coach Joe Judge their next head coach, league sources tell ESPN,” Adam Schefter reported. “Deal was in the works as of last night, which is another reason Matt Rhule took the Panthers’ HC job.”
As Schefter mentioned, the Judge hiring came after former Baylor head coach Matt Rhule, who was a finalist for the New York job, accepted the vacant head coaching job in Carolina with the Panthers.
To lock him up, the Panthers gave Rhule a seven-year deal worth $60 million that could be worth up to $70 million with incentives. Rhule reportedly gave the Giants a chance to match that offer but New York, understandably, declined to do so and went with Judge instead.
On paper at least the hiring seems somewhat surprising because of how New England’s wide receivers performed this season, but Judge also was the coordinator for a special teams unit that has been one of the best in the league for years.
Every single Pats receiver either underachieved or badly underachieved this season… but congrats on the Joe Judge hiring Giants fans!
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) January 7, 2020
Already looking to fill out Judge’s staff, New York requested permission from the Cowboys to interview former Dallas coach Jason Garrett.
Source: #Giants requested permission from #Cowboys to interview Jason Garrett as offensive coordinator under new HC Joe Judge. Garrett’s 10 years of head coaching experience would be important asset to inexperienced HC. Also Garrett could develop Daniel Jones if interested.
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) January 7, 2020
With the top coaching positions in Carolina and New York filled and Mike McCarthy in place in Dallas, the only vacant head-coaching job in the NFL is the position in Cleveland with the Browns.
New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who was supposed to interview in both Carolina and New York, is supposed to speak with the Browns about their opening on Friday. Given the flurry of hirings, he may want to bump that interview up a little bit, the Cleveland is in no rush to make a hire.
No more need for Cleveland to rush their head coaching hire; Browns have their choice of the field.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 7, 2020
If McDaniels does leave for Cleveland, the Patriots, who will no longer have Tom Brady under contract once the league year starts on March 18, will be extremely short-staffed.
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