Giants make hirings of Jason Garrett, Patrick Graham, Thomas McGaughey official

While you were enjoying your Friday evening, the New York Giants made the hirings of Jason Garrett as offensive coordinator, Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator/assistant head coach and Thomas McGaughey as special teams coordinator official.

The Giants did not acknowledge any of the other reported hirings for Joe Judge’s coaching staff.

“We’re setting out to develop a smart, tough and really sound football team and that’s going to start with the coordinators setting the tone in each room,” Judge said in a statement released by the Giants. “Each one has experience, each one has the ability to run multiples (schemes), put the pressure on the opponent, and each one is an excellent teacher.

“All these guys were priorities to add to our staff. You have a short list when you come into this and you make sure you go ahead and take your time and get those guys in with whatever it takes. The priority is to put the best teachers and the best people around your players so you can form a strong locker room and make them fundamentally sound and situational. And I think all three of these guys bring that to the team.”

Jason Garrett

Garrett was with the Dallas Cowboys from 2007 through 2019 as either offensive coordinator or head coach. In those 13 seasons, Dallas had a top 10 offense eight times.

“I’ve known about Jason for a long time, not only through the general public as well-known as he is as head coach of the Cowboys,” Judge said. “There were guys I worked with that I came across in my career at both Alabama and at the New England Patriots that worked with Jason through their time in Miami with him. They consistently all reflected on how smart he is, how great a teacher he is and how his perspective of the game was through a different lens than most coaches. And when he sees it, he’s able to communicate it and paint that mental image to the players. And he does a fantastic job of making in-game adjustments.”

Garrett interviewed with the Giants on Wednesday.

“We had some great conversations when we were able to bring him in here,” Judge said. “It was a great opportunity to get to know each other a little better than we had before. It was a great opportunity to sit there and talk ball and share philosophies and views on the game. It’s a great system he brings with great teaching that will allow our players to go out there and play aggressively.”

Patrick Graham

The hiring of Graham to replace James Bettcher was one of the first reported moves by Judge. Graham spent seven seasons with the New England Patriots and was with the Giants as defensive line coach during Ben McAdoo’s tenure. He was defensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins a season ago.

Why was Judge so aggressive in getting Graham, who ran the league’s worst defense with the Dolphins, to come to the Giants?

“We’ve had a lot of discussions, both before he came here as well as since he’s been here, in terms of what he would want to do with the scheme,” Judge said. “We share the same vision to be able to run multiples and use the players on our roster to the best of their ability to match up against the opponent.”

Thomas McGaughey

With Judge’s background as a special teams coach, keeping McGaughey as a holdover from Pat Shurmur’s staff is a sign of respect.

“I’ve known T-Mac from going against him as well as being in the business and I have a good relationship with him professionally and personally,” Judge said. “I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a person. He gets the most out of his players. I’ve competed against him and I knew it was always going to be tough sledding in the game there. From the perspective of having to go against him, you understand you don’t want to get him out of the building; you want to hold onto guys like that. They’re definitely key assets. He and (assistant former coordinator) Tom Quinn do an outstanding job of working together, coaching the players in techniques and coming up with schemes for game plans that allow them to apply pressure on the opponents.”