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Evaluating New York's football head coaches

Date: January 23, 2021

By: Michael Daly

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Jim McIssac

The New York Giants and the New York Jets made new coaching hires within the past two seasons. The Giants hired former New England Patriots special teams coordinator Joe Judge as their head coach in January 2020. The Jets recently hired former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh as their head coach.

 

These two teams have seemingly made the right choices in their hiring based on the track records and leadership qualities from Judge and Saleh. For Judge, he came from a long line of legendary coaches in college football and the NFL. Judge emerged from the coaching tree of Alabama head coach Nick Saban and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

Judge produced a 6-10 record for the Giants in his rookie season as the team’s head coach, and when someone looks at that record, they may think that he struggled, which he did, but Judge won his team over. Although his team was 6-10, they found themselves on the doorstep of the playoffs in week 17.

 

The New York Giants were a Washington Redskins loss away from clinching a berth in the playoffs as the 2020 NFC East Champions. Ultimately, Judge and his team fell short of their goal, but Judge played a massive role in the team’s success and playoff contention. He showed as a rookie head coach in the NFL that he was ready for the spotlight and the difficult position that is being the head coach of a storied franchise like the Giants.

 

Judge is a demanding head coach, but his players truly love playing for him because he prepares them for battle each and every week. With Judge at the helm, the Giants will be a well-prepared team heading into the 2021 NFL season.

The consensus for the New York Jets is that they got it right when it comes to hiring Saleh for their head coaching vacancy. Saleh is a defensive minded coach who has almost two decades worth of coaching experience. He has coached on staffs led by Pete Carroll and Kyle Shanahan.

 

His intensity is what will draw Jets’ fans to him because he loves the game of football and his players will be able to feel his passion. He is the exact opposite of Adam Gase because he is not solely focused on one part of the team. Saleh will enter into this role almost as the CEO of the Jets because he will work on all sides of the ball, whether it is defense, offense, or the special teams.

 

Saleh’s name has been in the head coaching vacancy pool for a few years and now he is receiving a fantastic opportunity to prove his worth. It will be a tough ask for Saleh to turn this ship around within one season, but he has the work ethic and personality to do so. The Jets found a head coach who is not afraid to lead this team into battle and he is willing to start from the ground up in order to turn this team into a successful one.

 

Judge and Saleh are going to have their hands full with reenergizing two franchise that have struggled in the last decade. If all pans out the way it seems, New York could have two NFL head coaches who are extremely successful in their positions. This is something New York has not seen since Tom Coughlin and Rex Ryan were in charge of the two NFL franchises in New York.

Michael Daly is the station manager of 89.5 FM WSOU, and can be reached at

wsoustationmanager@gmail.com.

Posted in: Sports

Seton Hall

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