On February 18th, Giants running back coach DeAndre Smith left the Giants to join Shane Steichen, who he had a solid prior coaching relationship, and became the Indy Colts new running back coach.
The Giants running backs had a very productive first year under Smith, who had never coached before in the NFL until his signing with the Giants. In a sport where continuity matters, it was a setback for the Giants.
After completing a search for a new running backs coach, Brian Daboll selected Jeff Nixon to replace Smith.
The Nixon resume is outstanding:
*was named Acting Head Coach of the Panthers when Matt Rhule was fired (2022).
*was named Interim OC of the Panthers when Joe Brady was fired (2021)
*13 years of experience as an NFL coach
*3 years as the OC at Baylor, in years where the team had an explosive offense
Speculation on my part, but when Daboll became the Giants Head Coach and needed a running backs coach, I think the Nixon resume (he was not an available candidate at the time) would have led to his hire, rather than DeAndre Smith.
After a successful first season as the Giants Offensive Coordinator, Mike Kafka had FOUR interviews to become a Head Coach (Carolina, Houston, Indy, and Arizona). That was the most by any head coaching candidate this offseason. Clearly the Giants realize that they will eventually lose Kafka to a head coaching position.
With Daboll's long career on Offense, and the continuity and experience of the existing staff, the addition of Jeff Nixon has given much more strength and experience to the Offensive Staff.
Hated to see a successful new coach like DeAndre Smith leave, but finding a replacement with Nixon's background and skills turned a negative into a positive.
Yes I remember thinking that Judge assembled a solid staff especially compared to Shurmur's staff where he couldn't convince his top choices to come to NY which is why we ended up with a guy like Hal Hunter as the OL coach.
Daboll landed a premier DC immediately in Wink Martindale and lured one of the brightest young offensive minds Mike Kafka away from KC even though it was reported that Reid was hoping that Bieniemy would land a HC job so that he could promote Kafka to OC.
i think judges staff was interesting because of how different it was from typical staffs. he hired people from college more than pros and who he didnt have very many recent direct connections with. i think the college conex did help with their drafts those 2 years. thomas, mckinney, ojulari specifically since they had so many connections to bama and uga.
as you mentioned the downfall was that quality wise the staff like judge just wasnt very good on substance. he fired columbo halfway through year 1. rob sale and sean spencer are back in college. jason garrett is on tv and missed on a few college jobs. freddie kitchens is a college te coach. graham is probably on the hot seat this year as a dc.
the most successful coach he had was probably bielema who had a nice year (with tommy devito) in illinois.
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many of us thought Judge's assistant coaching staff was a good one, albeit with a lot of assistant coaches with collegiate experience. In hindsight, we couldn't have been more wrong. This is a much better staff.
i think judges staff was interesting because of how different it was from typical staffs. he hired people from college more than pros and who he didnt have very many recent direct connections with.
I remember that differently.
There were a bunch of coaches he crossed paths with in NE, Bama, and Miss St., no?
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In comment 16120221 Eric from BBI said:
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many of us thought Judge's assistant coaching staff was a good one, albeit with a lot of assistant coaches with collegiate experience. In hindsight, we couldn't have been more wrong. This is a much better staff.
i think judges staff was interesting because of how different it was from typical staffs. he hired people from college more than pros and who he didnt have very many recent direct connections with.
I remember that differently.
There were a bunch of coaches he crossed paths with in NE, Bama, and Miss St., no?
there were connections and guys he crossed paths with but normally you see something more like daboll where he brought over tierney and johnson who were his guys for multiple years coming over from buffalo. he had originally tried to hire dorsey too but buf blocked him so he went with kafka.
im pretty sure judge didnt bring over a single assistant directly from NE. he had never coached with Garrett and while he and patrick graham had crossed paths in NE for a few years that had been 5+ years prior. graham had moved on to 3 different jobs from the time he and judge had worked together.
from the college guys i dont think judge had ever worked with sean spencer and he was 10 years past his bama experience in hiring burton burns/kevin sherrer.
derek dooley, jeremy pruitt, and bielema were all interesting hires. there are always going to be previous connections but it was a very unique staff.
I guess the reason Judge didn't bring anyone over of note from NE is because he didn't have a (big or any) staff as the specials coach.
Burns (running backs), Russ Callaway (quality control), Nick Williams (quality control) and Jody Wright (general assistant) all crossed paths with Judge at Alabama. On defense, Carter Blount (quality control), Jeremy Pruitt (senior defensive assistant) and Kevin Sherrer (linebackers) were on Saban’s Alabama staff with Judge. Amos Jones, the special projects and situations assistant, was also with Judge at Alabama.
There are other connections on Judge’s staff. Three of his assistants (Freddie Kitchens, Blevins, Hollern) were with Judge at Mississippi State, where Judge was a player and later a young member of the Bulldogs coaching staff. Two of Judge’s assistants (Graham and quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski) were with Judge on Bill Belichick’s Patriots staff.
And so, 14 of the 24 members of the staff have direct past ties to Judge. Williams actually has two ties to Judge. He was a wide receiver at Alabama when Judge was an assistant, at the same time Williams’ father, Bobby, was on Saban’s staff with Judge.
This. If memory serves Daboll didn’t really know Wink well at all.