Giants copying the Cowboys offense is a disaster waiting to happen

If you want to know what the New York Giants’ offense will look like, ask head coach Joe Judge. It’ll look like the Dallas Cowboys. Is that a good thing?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

But what if imitation only yields failure? As New Found Glory once told us, “failure’s not flattering” and it feels like we’re at an all-time low for the New York Giants. This disaster we’re referring to is rookie head coach Joe Judge‘s decision to copy the Dallas Cowboys’ offense and bring it to the Big Apple. It may be his rookie year as a head coach, but it’s all downhill from here.

See, this is what happens when you hire the world’s greatest sideline percussionist in former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett to be your new offensive coordinator. You might have a top-seven offense every other year or even the best statistically in football like last season. However, it’ll be a lot of clapping, a lot of 8-8 and a lot of losses in primetime for the entire world to see.

In a conference call on Tuesday, Judge said the following about what his Giants offense will look like. “I think schematically the easiest way to describe [the offense] to the outside world right now is you know it’s going to be similarly based on what Jason’s done in Dallas. There’s going to be some similarities, but it’s got to cater to the players we have on our roster.”

Basically, what the former New England Patriots special teams coach is banking on is Garrett’s ability to turn second-year quarterback Daniel Jones into Dak Prescott. Though that may be possible, what people continually fail to realize was how transformative of a player Prescott was at Mississippi State. Jones was just kind of okay maybe while at Duke. That matters a ton.

“It’s a collection of what Jason’s put together throughout his career,” Judge said. “There’s going to be similarities in some regards to Daniel. I can’t tell you concrete-wise what that’s going to be. But there’s a lot of ‘cousin concepts’ in every offense.”

‘Cousin concepts’, now that’s a phrase.

Ultimately, the Giants had an excellent offensive coordinator last year, but too bad he was their head coach, Pat Shurmur. He’s one of the best in the business and he’ll help make Drew Lock a star this year with the Denver Broncos. Shurmur proved once again he didn’t have the personality to command the room and be a head coach. New York’s loss will be Denver’s gain.

Another reason Judge opted to bring Garrett over from a division rival is he stems from the same Nick Saban coaching tree. Judge served under the Alabama Crimson Tide head coach in 2009 to 2011 before arriving in New England. Garrett was on Saban’s Miami Dolphins staff over a decade ago.

“Once you work under somebody, you develop your style, but you borrow a lot from that person that you just left,” Judge said. “Whether it’s as simple as verbiage, terminology, you know, philosophies on route running, past protections, all those things there.

While we should appreciate the Giants attempting to cultivate an identity quickly under Judge, it is one that didn’t result in an NFC Championship game appearance in any of Garrett’s 13 years as an offensive coordinator or head coach of the Cowboys. So what are they trying to do here? What is the point in all this? Low-end stability?

The only way it works is if No. 4 overall pick Andrew Thomas becomes New York’s version of Tyron Smith at left tackle. Otherwise, “Danny Dimes” will scramble for his life like Fran Tarkenton did behind a wet paper bag of an offensive line. Like Shurmur, Tarkenton was better in Minnesota. Eli Manning‘s heir apparent isn’t going to Minneapolis anytime soon, so clap your hands.