News has broken that the now-former special teams coordinator/wide receivers coach of the New England Patriots, Joe Judge, has been hired by the New York Giants to fill their vacant head coach position. While the road from special teams to head coach is rare, it has had its bright spots. Will he be successful? History tells us that he can be.
The #Giants are hiring #Patriots ST coach and WRs coach Joe Judge, source said. He just informed Bill Belichick.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 7, 2020
Judge has a good history as an assistant. First, he was a graduate assistant at Mississippi State. Then, he was the linebackers coach at Birmingham-Southern. Next, he began his special teams role at the University of Alabama before going to New England as a special teams assistant and coordinator. Finally, he added wide receivers coach to the title last season.
The list of coaches from the special teams side of the ball that have become head coaches isn’t long. In fact, the list of successful ones is even shorter.
In the history of the NFL, there have been 500 head coaches to date to coach at least one game. Only 20 percent (100) have coached 100 games, and only three percent of those 100 were special teams coordinators before becoming head coaches in the NFL.
The three men combined to coach 663 regular-season games and 47 playoff games (so far, as one is currently in the 2019 playoffs). Their combined regular-season record is 382-281. Their combined playoff record is 27-20. They’ve combined for six trips to the Super Bowl, winning two of them. Of the two that are retired, one is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach, and the other is in as a player and could garner consideration down the road for his coaching.
The coaches are Marv Levy, Mike Ditka, and John Harbaugh.
Could success by Judge open the flood gates for special teams coordinators? Maybe.
Let’s consider this history. It’s not just the winning percentage in the regular season, but the playoff success, as well. If Judge were to lead the Giants to the Super Bowl in the 2020s, it would be the fourth straight decade in which a special teams coordinator-turned-head coach led his team to the Super Bowl. If he were to win, that would the three in four decades. Ditka led the Bears to a Super Bowl XX win. Levy led the Bills to four straight Super Bowl appearances (albeit all losses), and John Harbaugh led the Ravens to a Super Bowl XLVII victory.
Many people will point to the failures of past Bill Belichick assistants as a reason to doubt Judge, but according to Ian Rapoport, he’s been preparing for this day.
#Patriots coach Bill Belichick knew early on Joe Judge was head-coach material, meeting with him on a regular basis to go over program-building and what it takes to become a head coach. Now, he’s the #Giants coach.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 7, 2020
As the Giants continue to build on their future, Judge will be front and center. Judge has an opportunity to set the bar and help future special teams coaches land interviews and jobs in the future. Can this lead to a tidal wave of special teams coordinators getting chances they’ve deserved for a long time? Can he get the job done? Time will tell on that one, but history is on his side if he is given a chance to stay a while.
