Giants Country

New York Giants Head Coach Joe Judge Reveals Plan for Offensive Play Calling

Giants fans might not like the answer the Giants head coach gave regarding the immediate future of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.

Patricia Traina

New York Giants Head Coach Joe Judge Reveals Plan for Offensive Play Calling
New York Giants Head Coach Joe Judge Reveals Plan for Offensive Play Calling /

Three weeks into the 2021 season, the New York Giants offense is averaging 18,7 points per game, slightly better than the 17.5 points it averaged last year.

But with the team 0-3 and twice failing to crack at least 20 points, the growing cries for the removal of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett have continued to intensify over the weeks.

Judge, however, said he isn't planning to make any changes to the play-callers this week.

"In terms of who's going to be calling the plays, no," he said Monday afternoon on a conference call with reporters when asked if a change was pending. "In terms of offense, defense, kicking game, the coordinators will still be making the play calls this week."

His "this week" qualifier bears watching because the Giants can't continue on their current struggles to score. In 19 games dating back to last year, the Giants have scored at least 20 points only eight times, as they continue to hover near the bottom league-wide in scoring.

This year, they're three of five in the red zone but dating back to last season, they are 19 of 41 (46.3 percent) inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

While Judge isn't necessarily embracing the status quo of the situation--he's made it clear that the team needs to continue improving on the things holding them back. He also indicated that he'd like to exhaust all possibilities before making any radical changes.

"Obviously game plan wise, we'll make some adjustments," he said of the play-calling. "We'll do some things that  we think we can improve more. We’ll obviously dive into a couple of focal points to make sure that we finish in the red zone – that’s been something we have to do obviously better as a team."

The Giants also need to get better execution from their players. They can't be giving up sacks deep in enemy territory. They can't be dropping passes that hit receivers in the hands, or missing wide open player running free down the field. And they can't be indecisive in the running game.

To be fair, the play-calling, which is still something of a work in progress given that Garrett didn't have his entire slate of skill position players for most of the summer, is still something of a work in progress. But that said, Garrett and the Giants don't have endless time to get this figured out.

So if the planned changes don't yield the desired results, it will be interesting to see if Judge decides to pull the plug on Garrett's play-calling duties in favor of senior offensive assistant Freddie Kitchens, who last year called the plays during Garrett's COVID-19 inspired absence.

Judge was also asked why he thought Garrett remains the right man to be calling plays for the team.

"We're going to stay consistent with what we're doing and keep improving as a team," he said. "There's a lot of things there to clean up coaching-wise, but we're going to stay on the track with it and make sure that we get those things right before making any radical changes." 

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Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

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