The New York Giants will enter the 2020 season without Eli Manning on the roster for the first time since 2003. In addition, the team will have a mostly entirely new coaching staff entering their 94th season.
The team hired Joe Judge as the 19th full-time head coach in franchise history. The Giants’ coaching staff includes former NFL and collegiate head coaches, coaches making their debut at the NFL level, and a few names familiar to Giants fans.
Head Coach: Joe Judge
Judge will be one of the NFL’s youngest head coaches at 38. He has no head coaching experience at any level but he has spent his career around winners. Judge spent three national championship winning seasons as an assistant for Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide. He also won three Super Bowls as a New England Patriots assistant.
Judge, who spent the past eight seasons on Bill Belichick’s staff in Foxborough, brings a fiery, cerebral approach to the game that was on full display on the day he was introduced as the successor to Pat Shurmur.
Offensive Coordinator: Jason Garrett
Garrett is perhaps the name best known to the Giants and their fans. He spent nine seasons as head coach of the division rival Dallas Cowboys. Garrett led the Cowboys to 13 victories over the Giants and three NFC East division crowns. Like Judge, Garrett also cut his teeth learning under Saban. Garrett was Miami Dolphins quarterbacks coach while Saban served as the team’s head coach.
Garrett’s signing with the Giants is a homecoming of sorts. His father was the team’s defensive coordinator in the mid-1970s. Garrett himself was the Giants’ backup quarterback from 2000-03.
Defensive coordinator: Patrick Graham
Graham was the Giants’ defensive line for two seasons (2016-17). He joined the Green Bay Packers as a linebackers coach and run game coordinator for the 2018 season before joining the Dolphins as defensive coordinator last season.
Graham coached alongside Judge in New England and held multiple positions in his seven seasons in Foxborough, including linebackers coach and defensive line coach.
Special team coordinator: Thomas McGaughey
McGaughey has been the Giants’ special teams coordinator since 2018. He is in his second stint with the team as he previously served as assistant special teams coordinator from 2007-10. McGaughey was a member of the coaching staff when the Giants defeated the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
McGaughey has extensive experience at both the collegiate (Houston, LSU) and NFL (New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers) levels.
Quarterbacks coach: Jerry Schuplinski
Schuplinski is renowned in NFL circles as a quarterback guru. He worked alongside Judge for six seasons with the Patriots as an offensive assistant and assistant quarterbacks coach. In 2019, Schuplinski was a quarterbacks coach with the Dolphins. He helped 37-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick lead the Dolphins to a respectable 5-11 finish after dropping their first seven games to open the season. The Giants are hoping Schuplinski will have the same effect on 22-year-old Daniel Jones.
Running backs: Burton Burns
Burns, 67, is finally getting his chance at the NFL level after helping the development of former Heisman Trophy winners Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram at Alabama. Burns spent 10 seasons grooming the Crimson Tide’s running backs. He has hasn’t coached in a few years as the position he leaves behind in Tuscaloosa was associate athletic director. However, Henry and Ingram (as well as T.J. Yeldon and former NFL backs Eddie Lacy and Trent Richardson) helped prepare Burns for his greatest challenge yet: Saquon Barkley.
Wide receivers: Tyke Tolbert
Tolbert joined the Giants in 2018 after spending seven seasons and earning a Super Bowl ring with the Denver Broncos. Tolbert has played a huge role in the development of Sterling Shepard and the emergence of former fifth-round selection Darius Slayton.
Tight ends: Freddie Kitchens
Kitchens spent 2019 as Cleveland Browns head coach but was fired after a disappointing 6-10 season. He and Judge know each other from their time at Mississippi State when Kitchens coached the running backs and Judge began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater. Kitchens has also been a tight ends coach with both the Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals.
Offensive line: Marc Colombo
Colombo was a former Cowboys player and assistant coach under Garrett. He, perhaps, has the biggest assignment, as the Giants offensive line has struggled for many of the seasons since winning Super Bowl XLVI.
Assistant offensive line coach: Ben Wilkerson
Wilkerson returns for his third season with the Giants. He was the Chicago Bears’ assistant offensive line coach before joining the Giants.
Senior offensive assistant: Derek Dooley
Dooley is a former head coach at both Louisiana Tech (2007-09) and Tennessee (2010-12). He spent four seasons with the Cowboys as a wide receivers coach (2013-17) before returning to the NCAA as the University of Missouri’s offensive coordinator.
Offensive assistant: Stephen Brown
Brown is another Garrett assistant joining the Giants. In Dallas, Brown worked closely with the team’s running backs.
Offensive quality control: Bobby Blick
Blick is returning for a fourth season with the Giants. He was a defensive assistant in his first three seasons.
Defensive line: Sean Spencer
This is Spencer’s first NFL gig. He spent the past six seasons as Penn State’s defensive line coach. He also helped Vanderbilt reach three bowl games during his three seasons there (2011-13).
Inside linebackers: Kevin Sherrer
Sherrer was Alabama director of player development while Judge was a special teams assistant. He was most recently Tennessee’s defensive coordinator (2018) and special teams coordinator/inside linebackers coach (2019).
Outside linebackers/senior defensive assistant: Bret Bielema
Bielema was head coach at both Wisconsin (2006-12) and Arkansas (2013-17). He spent the past two seasons with Judge in Foxborough as a consultant and defensive line coach.
Defensive backs: Jerome Henderson
Henderson was a former defensive backs coach under Garrett in Dallas. He was mostly recently with the Atlanta Falcons, where he helped lead the team to an appearance in Super Bowl LI. Henderson has also served with the Browns and Jets.
Assistant defensive backs coach: Anthony Blevins
Blevins returns for his third season with the Giants. He spent the past two seasons as a special teams assistant. Both he and Judge are graduates of Mississippi State.
Defensive assistant: Jody Wright
Wright and Judge worked together at Alabama. He also worked at Mississippi State and UAB before returning to Alabama as director of player personnel. This is Wright’s first NFL position.
Defensive quality control: Mike Treier
Treier is the youngest member of the Giants’ coaching staff at just 29 years old. He was previously defensive coordinator at Tennessee-Martin (2016) and served as both defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Marshall.
Special teams assistant: Tom Quinn
Quinn is the longest-tenured member of the Giants’ coaching staff. He has been with the team since 2006, twice serving as a special teams assistant and spending over a decade as special teams coordinator. Quinn was the Giants’ special teams coordinator when they won Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
– Curtis Rawls is a Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage and covers the NFL and the New York Giants. Please like and follow on Facebook and Twitter. Curtis can be followed on Twitter @CuRawls203.
