As we all settle into our new normal, I'm kind of done with watching the news about the shutdowns and want a distraction. One of the formerly positive points about getting a new coaching staff was that they were usually given extra time and extra OTAs to implement their system.
Now with the world we live in, the reality is that NFL offices and offseason programs are essentially shut down. We will have to see what happens for mini-camps or training camp with this, but at the least it would seem the Giants and Joe Judge are at a major disadvantage in setting up his system and his culture because he had to do everything from afar.
I'm sure it's challenging enough for Judge and the Giants right now to be focusing on their draft targets, with no pro days, and are likely trying a number of creative solutions as players/agents are setting up their own individual virtual workouts. Coaches and scouts are likely crunching tons of game tape on players.
But the Giants are in a situation where they've hired a new S& C coach in Craig Fitzgerald as Aaron Wellman left. He needs to implement his approach with no face to face contact with his players. Judge can't be in the building to be along side players as they would have been working out at the Giants' facilities. Daniel Jones will need to learn a new offensive system with Jason Garrett and not have the time to sit with him.
I'm curious, and perhaps this is an ask to the beat writers who follow the Giants, how are the Giants and Judge in particular dealing with this? Are the coaching holding zoom meetings with their players? Is Fitzgerald providing details on their training and diet without having them in the building to follow along at home? How does the CBA interpret this situation now for coaches reaching out to players in the offseason. Judge is a detail oriented guy, so I'm sure that he's had some thoughts on how to deal with this and likely the fraternity of NFL coaches have discussed among themselves. But it would seem the Giants in particular, with a new young coach, new staff, and young QB can really be impacted in their development and production (keeping in mind the Glazer story about Gettleman needing to win this year) when this pandemic is behind us.
Hopefully we have more than four "computer guys" on it! ;)
They also speculated how lack of availability of physicals may spook the trade/trade up market (for QBs/Tua especially) if teams can't get their own doctors near them.
My daughter is playing D3 Field Hockey and the coach has virtual zoom training sessions with them 4 days a week and the girls are training as best they can on their own.
Our school system is working on ways to conduct on-line classes for K-12. There are lot more challenges with this then NFL teams trying to interact with their players.
Coach Judge seems like an "out of the box" thinker and I think this could end up being an advantage for him over other new coaches. We'll see how it goes.
One of the key things that Wellman was a believer in was sleep for athletes and how important it was. One thing he said which was interesting, was that a number of players would wear devices that tracked their sleep cycles (like a fitbit I suppose) and that's all good data for the S&C team to use. However, he said he needed to be very careful in how they got that data because the CBA was clear that you can't track a player's whereabouts beyond what was stipulated in the CBA. So if he's getting data that a player's sleep cycle didn't start until 5 AM, the team will know this guy is out all night long. He said veteran players would volunteer the data to him so he could use it to optimize individual programs.
So Fitzgerald likely is walking in and kind of picking up Wellman's information to work with. Now, I'd hope Wellman is providing a professional courtesy to Fitzgerald and might on his own spend some time with him to talk through what's been collected. But the bottom line was Wellman was very clear on what they were able to get information on and what they couldn't and how much the hands on work that he did to evaluate players throughout the season in his office was critical. Fitzgerald can't do any of that. I'd hope the NFLPA can look at relaxing certain rules right now to help in this offseason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQN-AZz0DHE - ( New Window )
Good point about the 2011 season and the lockout.
From what I can see there were 4 new coaches hired in 2011
- Jim Harbaugh (Niners)- went 13-3 and made NFC Championship Game
- Pat Shurmur (Browns)- went 4-12 and last place
- Hue Jackson (Raiders) - went 8-8 and 3rd place
- Mike Munchak (Titans)- went 9-7 and 2nd place
All in all, except for Shurmur, not too bad.
Everything we know about Judge and his staff is that they will be prepared