The offseason has only just begun, but Joe Judge is already lauding a move the Giants made for the 2021 season.
The Giants’ defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham, piqued the interest of the Jets, who asked permission to speak with him about their head coaching vacancy. The Giants stepped up, extended and enriched Graham’s contract – he is also the assistant head coach – and Graham last week announced at the present time he will not seek any other positions.
“Keeping Pat here was definitely a priority for us,” Judge said Tuesday morning on WFAN. “We know Pat’s gonna have a lot of opportunities going forward. He’s a very, very smart coach, he’s very good communicator, he has a lot of really good ideas and he’s very good getting the players to buy in and understand the concept he’s trying to do.
“I tell you what, that to me was huge. That was huge. Pat’s a great coach, he’s a good friend. Being able to keep him in this organization for as long as we can, that definitely was a priority. He’s a tremendous help to me, he carries that title of assistant head coach and that’s not just fluff on a sheet. He does a lot of things helping me internally.”
Graham and Judge previously worked together on Bill Belichick’s staff with the Patriots and the two are aligned in every way. After the requisite end-of-year meetings, Judge told his coaching staff to go home after the grind of a long season but he and Graham remained in the team facility, still working.
“He’s the only other coach in here right now, we’ve already started kinda floating through some sheets of free agents and started poking around some of the draft stuff right now,” Judge said. “He’s great to always bounce ideas off each other. I’m definitely happy he’s coming back next year.”
Judge reiterated he has no regrets about playing Daniel Jones in the Week 14 loss to the Cardinals, even though Jones was clearly hampered with a strained right hamstring and sprained left ankle.
“Sometimes there are a lot of injuries that are worse that kind of initially let on to,” Judge said. “His was definitely a significant injury he battled through for the rest of the year.”
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