It was always going to be awkward.
The moment Giants coach Joe Judge opted to fire offensive line coach Marc Colombo, in Week 11, for insubordination, the fallout was never going to feel ... normal.
So Friday, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett spoke to the media for the first time since Colombo, his friend, was fired. Judge hired Colombo on Garrett’s recommendation, after they’d spent the last four seasons together with the Cowboys.
“I just wanted to touch on is the situation with Marc Colombo,” Garrett said. “I know Coach Judge has talked about that and addressed that, so I don’t see any reason for me to talk about it much further.”
Center Nick Gates also spoke, the first offensive lineman to speak since the firing. He called it “difficult news”, but otherwise wouldn’t elaborate.
“Judge already addressed that with you guys,” Gates said. “We’re here to just focus on Cincinnati and I’ll take those questions.”
Gates was, actually, at the center of one of the controversies that led to Colombo’s outburst — a few weeks prior, Judge interrupted an offensive line drill to correct Gates’ technique, a person familiar told NJ Advance Media, which Colombo wasn’t happy about.
“The first four or five weeks, I mean, you guys saw, the whole offensive line was not playing well, we couldn’t run the ball,” Gates said. “Judge said a couple things here or there that he thought would help, and we had to try to do our best and work with it. He’s the head coach, so he has say in everything that goes on in the building.”
Despite Gates’ and Garrett’s requests on Friday, the questions — understandably — came anyway. The Giants have to move forward now, even with the awkwardness. Sunday’s game against the Bengals is too important to dwell on this for too much longer.
Unless, of course, it goes terribly.
There are still a few questions to be answered.
One, what it means for Garrett’s future as the offensive coordinator if Judge was willing to discard Colombo with the way things transpired. That’s not a question that can be answered until after the season, which will include six games where Garrett will surely have to get the offensive playing better than it did in the first 10. The Giants are only scoring 19.5 points per game.
Second, what this means for Garrett and Judge’s interpersonal relationship. Publicly, they both insist they are fine.
“I think I have a great relationship with Joe,” Garrett said.
Third, what this means for the offensive line. This is a young group featuring a rookie at left tackle (Andrew Thomas), a converted tackle at center (Gates) and a career backup (Cam Fleming) at right tackle. The Giants are also using an unusual rotation at both tackle and guard in order to get rookies Matt Peart — who won’t play on Sunday — and Shane Lemieux onto the field.
Colombo spent the entire spring (virtual), training camp and the first 11 weeks of the season with this group, which had struggled mightily for most of the season but had shown signs of life in recent weeks.
Dave DeGuglielmo was hired to replace Colombo. Before this week, he hadn’t spent a second coaching this group.
“Anybody who’s watched us play has seen the progression,” Garrett said. “The protection has improved as the year has gone on, and we’ve played better as an offense as a result. That’s just going to continue. Dave (DeGuglielmo) has coached in this league for a long time ... Those guys are in good hands.”
Already, Gates acknowledged on Friday, DeGuglielmo is teaching the Giants some new technique.
“There’s some different things that he wanted to change, that he changed up. Little bit different,” Gates said. “It’s things I’ve been taught in the past, multiple coaches have different techniques, so you kind of get a little bit here, and a little bit there.”
Could that prove to be problematic? Perhaps. Plus, DeGuglielmo has a reputation for rubbing some players the wrong way with his grating personality and is replacing a coach in Colombo that was extremely popular among the Giants offensive lineman.
DeGuglielmo is well-liked by some of his former players, but not all of them. He received particular criticism in 2018 for the way he treated Colts offensive lineman Denzelle Good when he coached in Indianapolis.
After Good’s brother was killed, he left the team to be with his family and returned to the Colts a week later, as chronicled by The Athletic. He had been a starter before that, but wasn’t ever again after. Good told The Athletic that DeGuglielmo was upset that he had left the team and that in a meeting in his office DeGuglielmo told Good he was “a failure.”
“He told me that as long as I was here, I would never play for him again,” Good told The Athletic. “I would never play another down because he felt disrespected. I wasn’t going to play even though I felt I was as good anyone on the field playing.”
Good eventually requested his release, which he was granted. DeGuglielmo was fired after the season.
He has never held a job as offensive line coach in the NFL for more than two seasons.
Judge is familiar with DeGuglielmo’s personality and coaching style from their time together with the Patriots in 2014-15, and clearly was comfortable enough to bring him initially as a consultant, and then as the full-time coach.
Whether that was the right call — or if DeGuglielmo will return in 2021 — will be determined over the next six weeks.
“Just got to put one foot in front of another and keep going,” Gates said. “We can’t skip a beat.”
Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com.