Ex-Giants coach Joe Judge rejoins Patriots as offensive assistant
The Patriots have lost a few bright offensive minds on their coaching staff this offseason. Now, they’re bringing back a veteran coach to try to remedy the situation.
The Patriots brought back Joe Judge as an offensive assistant, the team announced Tuesday. Judge, 40, spent the last two seasons as the head coach of the New York Giants. He received his start in the NFL under Bill Belichick and worked on the Patriots staff for eight seasons (2012-2019).
Per multiple reports, Judge was being wooed by former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who is now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. According to ESPN, McDaniels wanted Judge to join his staff as his team’s special teams coach. McDaniels has already taken with him the Patriots assistant quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree to be the Raiders quarterbacks coach.
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Judge developed into one of the top special teams coaches in the NFL in New England. He was the Patriots special teams assistant from 2012-2014. Following the retirement of Scott O'Brien, Judge was promoted to special teams coordinator (2015-2018). In 2019, Judge’s role was elevated to special teams coordinator/wide receivers coach.
That marked the first time in his career he coached on the offensive side of the ball.
Here are three thoughts on why bringing back Judge makes sense for the Patriots and what it means:
Patriots need veteran offensive coaching help
This is all about Mac Jones.
The young quarterback needs consistency. Losing McDaniels and Hardegree – his quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach – after his rookie season isn’t ideal. At the Pro Bowl last weekend, Jones told the Las Vegas Review Journal that McDaniels was "a great mentor" and "obviously taught" him "a lot about the game of football. On losing McDaniels and Hardegree, Jones acknowledged, “I wish we could keep both of them.”
It’s also expected that Patriots long time running backs coach Ivan Fears will retire. Between McDaniels and Fears alone, that’s a lot of offensive knowledge gone from New England. That’s why adding a veteran coach to the mix makes sense.
Judge had one season coaching receivers in the NFL, but he also came from the same college program as Jones. Judge worked under Nick Saban as Alabama's special teams assistant from 2009-11. Adding an experienced coach like Judge to the mix next season on the offensive side of the ball makes sense. The more eyes the better.
Is Judge a future Patriots offensive coordinator?
According to NBC Sports Boston, had McDaniels left the Patriots in 2018 to become the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, there was a chance that Judge would've replaced him as the Patriots offensive coordinator.
Considering Judge never coached on that side of the ball or called offensive plays, it would’ve been a radical idea from Belichick.
With McDaniels gone, will Judge turn into the de facto offensive play caller in New England?
That’s the biggest question right now. We shouldn’t rule it out. After all, the Patriots never named a defensive coordinator after Matt Patricia left. Will they do the same on the offensive end? Back in 2019, Belichick praised Judge for his work on the offensive side.
“Joe's done an outstanding job. He's a very good coach,” Belichick said. “He understands the game well, works very hard, very good at fundamentals. Joe picks up things, concepts and coaching points quickly and he and Josh have worked well together at that position.”
Our argument against letting Judge call offensive plays is that his lack of experience would be a detriment to Jones. A better idea would be for the Patriots to hire Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, who was the Patriots offensive coordinator in 2011.
On Sunday, ESPN’s Mike Reiss made a good point about the Patriots adding O’Brien. The veteran coach had a successful season at Alabama and that earned him a head-coaching interview in Jacksonville. If the Patriots add O’Brien as their play caller next season, he could be bound to become a head coach as soon as 2023.
Now, the Patriots shouldn’t shy away from O’Brien just because he’s a good coach and might earn a promotion. An ideal scenario might be to bring O’Brien into the fold, develop Judge on the offensive side and if O’Brien ends up leaving, the Pats could promote Judge to the position.
Patriots won’t change special teams coaches
The Patriots special teams unit uncharacteristically struggled in 2021. The team had an NFL-high three blocked punts last season. No other team had more than one. On top of that, we saw penalties and other miscues that you typically don’t see from Patriots special teams.
In Rick Gosselin's 2021 NFL Special Teams Rankings the Patriots were ranked 18th. That's their lowest finish since 2005 when they were 21st.
The poor performance made many wonder if Belichick would make a coaching change in regards to special teams coordinator Cameron Achord, who took over for Judge, or special teams assistant Joe Houston.
With Judge returning to the Patriots on the offensive side of the ball, that should give Achord a boost of confidence. The Patriots special teams unit actually finished first in Gosselin's team rankings back in 2020, which was Achord's first season as the head special teams coach.
Although it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see Judge back as the Patriots special teams coordinator, by adding his experience to the offensive staff, the Patriots at least keep consistency over on special teams. After all, they have enough coaching turnover already.