Giants’ O-line won’t see many changes under Dave DeGuglielmo
In his first media session since making a change at offensive line coach, New York Giants head coach Joe Judge chose to keep the sordid details surrounding the confrontation and eventual firing of Marc Colombo in house.
“I’ll just say on the entire situation, I made this clear from day one, I’m always going to make every decision what I see is best for the team,” Judge told reporters on Monday. “This decision was no different.
“Look, there’s been a lot of information out there, a lot of misinformation. A lot of people have done a lot of digging trying to figure out details of the situation. I’m not going to rehash any of that. I’ll just say on the whole thing, we wish Marc well going forward. The decision we made was in the best interest of the New York Giants, short and long-term.”
The man coming in to replace Colombo is veteran NFL assistant Dave DeGuglielmo, who began his career in the pro ranks as a quality control and assistant offensive line coach under Tom Coughlin here with the Giants from 2004-08.
DeGuglielmo has also coached the offensive liens of the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots, where he served on Bill Belichick’s staff alongside Judge from 2014-15.
Judge and Colombo had some differences of opinion on how the line should be coached, to say the least, but told reporters that not much will change under DeGuglielmo.
“We’re not going to do anything to turn the offense upside down right here,” Judge said. “We’re going to continue focusing on technique and assignments and principles of what we want to do big picture wise. They’ll be some adjustments here and there as we go. With six weeks left in the season, there is going to be a lot of continuity we’re looking to keep in place and keep improving as we go through the rest of the season. Will there be adjustments as needed throughout the season? Yes. Are we going to look to turn everything upside down? No.”
Judge said he didn’t feel that the switch to DeGuglielmo would be met with any resistance and said he spoke to the team about the changes.
“I spoke to the entire team last week. I spoke with the offensive line, I spoke with the captains, I spoke with people both individually and collectively based on the units,” Judge added. “Again, we’re pretty transparent as an organization. If something happens with the team, we keep it in-house, but I speak very openly with the team about it.”
Judge continues to focus on not losing the team and the locker room during this trying season, his first as thread coach.
“Look, we’re all professionals here,” he said. “We all have one goal in improving the team. Obviously, we’ve been working through a season. There are a lot of new guys coming from different spots. We’re all New York Giants now. We’re all working towards the same goal. There have been no effects in that nature right there. I feel good about going forward with everybody.”
