The New England Patriots will lose one of their assistant coaches to the New York Giants — but it is not the one that likes comes to everyone’s mind first: according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Giants will hire Patriots special teams/wide receivers coach Joe Judge to fill the head coaching spot created when the team fired Pat Shurmur after the regular season.
Judge was certainly an intriguing name on the coaching market as evidenced by the fact that head coach Bill Belichick added offensive responsibilities to his plate after the 2019 offseason brought the departure of previous receivers coach Chad O’Shea. And even though he never held a coordinator title in the NFL, the Giants apparently share Belichick’s high opinion of him and will now make him their new head coach.
The 37-year-old has been with the Patriots since 2012, when he joined the team as assistant special teams coach after previously working at Alabama under Belichick confidante Nick Saban. New England’s head coach then promoted Judge to run the kicking game operation after Scott O’Brien’s retirement in 2015 — a job he held until today, all while overseeing one of the best special teams units in the league — and added wide receiver duties last year.
Judge, who reportedly also had an offer on the table to become head coach at his alma mater Mississippi State, leaving now means that the Patriots will need to fill two positions. Assistant special teams coach Cameron Achord is the front-runner to take over the special teams role, while O’Shea — whom the Miami Dolphins released after just one season as offensive coordinator — and Troy Brown appear to be the frontrunners for the wide receiver spot.