I don’t know much about Joe Judge. He was an assistant for three years under Nick Saban at Alabama, and was an assistant for nine years with the Patriots. He spent the last five seasons as their special teams coordinator.
Judge played college football as a running back at Mississippi State in the early ‘80s. Reports indicated he was in the running to be the head coach at that school (a spot that’s since been filled by Mike Leach).
Whether Judge pans out remains to be seen. The Ravens way back when chose to hired a special teams coordinator (John Harbaugh) and that’s worked out very well for them.
I’m not sure how the credit should be divided up, but under his watch, New England recently has been the best team in the league at blocking punts. The Patriots last year blocked 4 punts. The rest of the league combined blocked only 7 punts.
| BLOCKED PUNTS | |
|---|---|
| Team | No |
| New England | 4 |
| Carolina | 1 |
| Minnesota | 1 |
| New Orleans | 1 |
| NY Giants | 1 |
| NY Jets | 1 |
| Seattle | 1 |
| Washington | 1 |
| Arizona | 0 |
| Atlanta | 0 |
| Baltimore | 0 |
| Buffalo | 0 |
| Chicago | 0 |
| Cincinnati | 0 |
| Cleveland | 0 |
| Dallas | 0 |
| Denver | 0 |
| Detroit | 0 |
| Green Bay | 0 |
| Houston | 0 |
| Indianapolis | 0 |
| Jacksonville | 0 |
| Kansas City | 0 |
| LA Chargers | 0 |
| LA Rams | 0 |
| Miami | 0 |
| Oakland | 0 |
| Philadelphia | 0 |
| Pittsburgh | 0 |
| San Francisco | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | 0 |
| Tennessee | 0 |
The Patriots in 2018 also tied for the league lead in blocked punts, with 2. That’s 6 in two years. During the same time period, New England didn’t have any punts blocked themselves – seems like they’ve figure out something.
One of their blocked punts last year resulted in the opening touchdown against the Giants in a Thursday night game in Week 6.
Kick returns also fall under the special teams umbrella. The Patriots in that area weren’t as notable. They ended the season with the league’s slowest tandem of returners (with Mohamed Sanu handling punts and Brandon Bolden fielding kickoffs). But they still managed to rank in the top 10 in punt return average and in the middle of the pack on kickoffs.
The Patriots also fumbled only once on a kick return. Only two teams were able to make it through the entire season without fumbling on kick or punt return.
Whether any of this translates to improvement in New York remains to be seen. But the Giants obviously liked what they heard in the interview. They gave him a 5-year contract, and he’ll be given the opportunity to turn around this struggling franchise.
—Ian Allan