Joe Judge meets the press before the Giants introduce him...

Joe Judge meets the press before the Giants introduce him as their new coach at MetLife Stadium on  Jan. 9, 2020. Credit: Corey Sipkin

No one is going to be cut from the Giants because they aren’t good at Zoom.

“Look, until we get on the grass, you really can’t evaluate a football player, you just can’t do it,” Joe Judge said on a video conference call with reporters on Tuesday, using the same technology that he employs to meet with his players on a regular basis during this virtual offseason program. “I’ve made it clear to our team that this spring is about learning and this spring is about building a base so when we get there in training camp, we can play fast and we can play aggressive. You’ll be evaluated in training camp.”

However, that doesn’t mean Judge and the rest of the coaching staff are not using the limited tools to which they have access to form opinions about the players. Maybe not as players, but as students and teammates and everything else that goes into being a functioning member of the NFL.

So when assistant coaches are running online meetings, Judge is taking the time to look around the Brady Bunch-like grid and watch how the players are interacting with the information.

“When there is an assistant coach presenting, everybody in there is also presenting themselves and how they conduct themselves in the meeting,” Judge said. “You’re looking around. How did the guy set up in his house? Is it a quiet setting? How is he dressed? What’s his eye focus like? Are his eyes down and is he trying to text?”

Judge said there hasn’t been a lot of negatives that he has observed.

“We’ve had a lot of guys with great urgency,” he said.

He’s also appreciated how well the team has started to come together … despite obvious separations. The Giants began their online classes and meetings in mid-April and Judge said it took about a week before the players began to loosen up in the format and joke with each other and relax. It wasn’t until Tuesday that the draft picks and other rookies were in those meetings with the veterans, but that blending went smoothly.

“Probably the best part of the day is when you click on the Zoom and everyone has their screens unmuted and you just hear the guys talking across,” Judge said. “It’s fun seeing all of the personalities emerge and the connections.”

The players enjoy it too.

“The key thing is the time when we’re all walking in and we get that little bit of time before we dive into the installs, trying to make it as natural as it can be,” Saquon Barkley said on Wednesday. “That’s not something we focus on. I’m just being myself. Shep [Sterling Shepard], all those guys, they’re just being themselves. We’re chopping it up, we’re joking with each other, we’re checking on each other. I think that’s the important thing during these meetings right now and I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”

So do the players watch Judge watching them? Maybe form impressions of him?

“Nah,” Barkley chuckled. “I’m just taking notes and trying to make sure I’m ready for when this thing starts.”

Meanwhile, Judge remains on the lookout for Zoom hints into his players, screening them via screen.

Meanwhile, Judge remains on the lookout for Zoom hints into his players.

“You have the opportunity in this setting here to see your players in a meeting standpoint where they really can’t hide,” Judge said. “Right now, we’re in a one-by-one box on the screen, but we’re all face to face and you don’t know who is looking at who at any time. So everything you are doing at all times is really what you are being evaluated on. I’ve made this clear to our players: Everybody is always making an impression. I can’t sign on with the team and stumble through a team talk and show shoddy film and have technology that doesn’t work and have them think: ‘This guy is going to be OK, he knows what he’s doing.’”

Whether Judge or any of the Giants knows what they are doing won’t be determined until the summer or the fall.

“We’re not going to evaluate a football team based purely on how they are on a computer,” Judge said. “I mean, we can go down to Circuit City and find a great football team on a computer. But we want to make sure right now that we’re just trying to give the players an opportunity to learn our material and learn our systems, to get a head start going into training camp. We’re trying to be as much of a resource to these guys as we possibly can.”

Some of them have yet to meet each other or their new coaches in person. Judge, who has stressed the importance of personal relationships with players, has yet to address them all in one room.

For now, all the Giants can do is peer into the pixels of each other’s eyes.

The windows to the soul, it seems, can only be found in tiny boxes on a screen.

Notes & quotes: After applying the rarely used unrestricted free-agent tender on LB Markus Golden last month, Judge said he’s spoken with the linebacker about his potential future with the Giants. “We have an interest in Markus,” Judge said. “We’ve talked to him and we’re going through the procedure right now and we’re going to let it play out a little bit and see where everything shakes out.” If Golden hasn’t signed with another team by July 22, he’ll be tied to the Giants for one year with a salary of just over $4.1 million … One of the ways the Giants are taking advantage of the lack of practice time is by keeping five quarterbacks on the roster after claiming Cooper Rush off waivers from the Cowboys last week. “You can have 90 quarterbacks right now because you don’t have to worry about throwing to anybody,” Judge said. “But in terms of going into camp, we’ll address that when we get closer to camp in terms of all the positions. We obviously have a template like everyone else has of the desired numbers for each position, but I think the overriding factor is you don’t want to turn away a good player just to suit the numbers.”

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