One of the biggest questions surrounding the hiring of Joe Judge as the Giants' next head coach is whether or not he'll have any say in the players he has on his 53-man roster.
And the reason behind that question is because of how old school GM Dave Gettleman is. But Gettleman doesn't understand where that comes from.
"It's going to be collaborative," Gettleman told reporters after Judge was officially introduced as the 19th head coach in franchise history on Thursday. "I don't understand where that notion comes from. It's got to be coming from people who have never worked with me."
Judge wouldn't comment on any players specifically during his presser, but Gettleman understands what kind of players he's looking for. And it fits his mindset, especially when it comes to fundamentals -- an area Judge touched on multiple times in his own remarks.
"The biggest thing was when he came in and said you got to run the ball, you got to stop the run and let's play special teams, there's a toughness you develop when you build your team to do those kinds of things," Gettleman explained about his impression of Judge during the interview process.
"At the end of the day, if you're not fundamentally sound -- and you look at the teams in the playoffs -- they're all fundamentally sound."
Is Gettleman surprised at the fact that he's even answering questions about Judge, a special teams coordinator with the Patriots who many didn't even know before the news broke on Tuesday? He wasn't at all due to the fact that Judge's name "kept popping up" when he was doing research for potential candidates.
"You don't know. You have to go in with an open mind," Gettleman said. "You can't say, 'He's the guy.' You can't do that. You can't cloud your thinking. You have to take each individual and go from there."
Giants co-owner John Mara said Judge's interview was the best interview he's ever been a part of, and co-owner Steve Tisch added "the more homework we did, the more Joe Judge's character stood out."
Gettleman admitted that there is much more to learn about Judge as they begin to work together. But his initial impression is one that makes him feel confident he is the right man for the job, and someone he can work well with.
"The bottom line is he is foundationally sound, he's got a great philosophy, he understands about teaching," Gettleman said. "It's all that stuff that he gets that has me excited."