The Giants get a well-deserved bye this weekend. You wouldn’t know it by the amount of news and events from Giants camp this week.
For a bye week, it sure has been busy.
Whether it’s the Giants growing COVID-19 list or the sudden departure of the Offensive Line (OL) Coach, Marc Colombo, there’s been no lack of action and reports. Coach Judge promised some “self-scouting” as the team went into its bye-week. It didn’t take long for his first coaching change to materialize.
After a heated exchange of words (not fists) on Tuesday, Judge fired Colombo and replaced him with long time OL Coach Dave DeGuglielmo. This is Guge’s second stint with the Giants, having coached as part of Tom Coughlin’s staff from 2004-2008. Judge did not plan to swap these coaches. That came about as Colombo resisted the idea of Guge coming in as a consultant to work with the offense, and more specifically with the OL.
As reported by northjersey.com’s Art Stapleton, Judge was not happy with the play of the OL and has been more active in coaching the OL the last few weeks.
In particular, Judge wanted Nick Gates to use different techniques than Colombo was teaching.
Photo: —Colombo wasn’t teaching that technique, so Judge steps in and teaches it. In addition, the Guard and Tackle rotations that Joe Judge spoke pointedly about as part of the plan for the Eagles’ game never really happened in the game. Apparently, that was the responsibility of Colombo to make happen.
Another sore point for the OL has been the play of Andrew Thomas in the first half of the season. Former OL Coach Paul Alexander was the coach working with Andrew Thomas before the draft. He has been very outspoken about the poor techniques Thomas had been using in the early part of the season. Alexander was adamant that Thomas was the most NFL ready of the top draftees this year. The last 2-3 weeks have seen Thomas play better. Also of interest, Matt Peart worked with Coach Alexander at the same time as Thomas prior to the draft.
Dave DeGuglielmo steps into a great opportunity. With the exception of Kevin Zeitler, a nine-year veteran, the Giants have youth across the entire OL. This is a group ready to be molded for domination of the line of scrimmage. He’s done it before in Miami, New England, Indianapolis, and cut his teeth as an NFL coach with the Giants. Here’s a good introduction to Guge in his own words.
The players return to practice next week.
For now, Guge will be watching a ton of tape on his new pupils.
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