Joe Judge has a brand new task ahead of him in his career — coaching quarterbacks.
Judge was a longtime special teams coach for the New England Patriots before joining the New York Giants as the head coach. While discussing his specific role, Judge still said he will help out with other positions in the offense.
“I’ll give you a direct answer right there, not to be evasive on anything,” Judge said, via NBC Sports Boston. “I am working with Mac, as well as some other people on the offense. I’m working with all the skill groups on the offense. I would say all of us are working collectively as a coaching unit to work with the entire offense.
“So that’s the most direct and specific answer I can give you on that, guys. In terms of who’s coaching each position, you’ll see me on the field with the quarterbacks.”
When it comes specifically to Jones and the quarterbacks, Judge has a plan prepared.
“I’ve been very excited to work with Mac,” Judge said, transcribed by NESN. “My job is to do everything in my power to prepare him on a daily basis, and for me, it starts with fundamentals. That’s just the way I see it. If you don’t have good fundamentals, every play is doomed from the start. And if you look at any player at any level, no matter how long they’ve been playing — whether it’s Year 1, Year 2, as it for Mac, or Year 13 or 14 — this time of year and training camp especially, you’ve got to get on the fundamentals.
“You have to start with a strong base. You’ve got to work on their footwork. You have to work on their mechanics. You have to work on the different throws they have to make. And I’m a firm believer in doing the things you’re going to do and doing them repeatedly. I know there’s a lot of clever and cute drills, a lot of things that look really cool and go out there and look like a guru. I’m a big believer in practicing what you’re going to do over and over, and for me, with a quarterback, that’s footwork. That’s what it is.”
He isn’t planning on changing Jones’ throwing motion.
“I’m a big believer,” he said, “that at this level of football, you’re not going to do much to change someone’s throwing motion — and I’m not saying that would apply to Mac at all, so don’t put that in there — but you don’t work with a quarterback to change how they throw at this level, in my opinion, but you can always improve their feet and their base and work on their release time.
“If you start changing how someone’s gripping the ball or someone’s throwing the ball, that’s just a great way as a coach to screw it up and think you’re a genius. So we’re going to focus a lot on the feet and the timing, and then you talk through just the offensive progressions.”
Jones is entering his second year and he’ll be without the proven offensive guru, Josh McDaniels. It will be a change of pace, but there doesn’t seem to be much that throws Jones off his mark.
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