The Giants Will Reportedly Hire Pats WR Coach Joe Judge After Matt Rhule Chose Carolina

The New York Giants were expected to meet with the favorite for their head coaching vacancy on Tuesday, but Baylor coach Matt Rhule never made it to the Meadowlands for an interview before he decided to take an offer from the Carolina Panthers instead.

That caused the Giants to adjust course and while there were rumors they might bring Jason Garrett in for an interview, it seems they quickly made the decision to not possibly let another of their favorite candidates go elsewhere as it was reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter and confirmed by Ian Rapoport that they were hiring Patriots special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach Joe Judge to the position.

As Schefter notes, this was apparently in the works since Monday night which was among the reasons Rhule took the Panthers job — although, that does seem to be a little bit of the Giants saving face and insisting they got their guy all along. Whatever the case, it’s just the latest instance of someone from the Belichick coaching tree finding their way into a head coaching job. Josh McDaniels is expected to do so (again) as well, and with Judge headed to New York the Pats will have to almost completely retool their offensive staff — as one would expect Judge and McDaniels to both try to bring a few assistants with them.

Judge had been with the Patriots since 2012 as a special teams assistant and coordinator, before adding the wide receiver group to his plate this past season. As for the Garrett interview request, that apparently is for the offensive coordinator job under Judge, which would make for an interesting dynamic.