Amos Jones hired by Giants coach Joe Judge to be his right-hand man, source says
Cardinals special teams coordinator Amos Jones calls out during the first half of an NFL game against the Jaguars in Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 17, 2013. Credit: AP/Phelan M. Ebenhack
INDIANAPOLIS — Joe Judge hired a coaching staff with the task of teaching the players how to get better at their jobs. Now he has added one more assistant to help him do his better.
Amos Jones, whose connection with the Giants’ coach goes back to Judge’s playing days at Mississippi State, has been added to the staff, a source confirmed. Jones, 60, is expected to serve as Judge’s right-hand man helping with everything from in-week planning and decision-making to in-game strategies and analytics. In baseball terms, he’ll be Judge’s bench coach.
For a 38-year-old rookie head coach, having that sounding board could be valuable. Having someone who is as trusted as Jones is by Judge could be indispensable. Jones was the special teams coordinator and linebackers coach when Judge played at Mississippi State and on the staff when Judge served there as a graduate assistant.
Jones was most recently an assistant special teams coach for the Buccaneers in 2019 and Bruce Arians’ special teams coach in Arizona before that. He’s also worked for the Browns and Steelers.
The Giants are also making major changes to their scouting department, parting with nearly four decades of experience with the franchise. According to reports, general manager Dave Gettleman has fired scouts Ryan Jones and Donnie Etheridge. Jones, who had been with the Giants for 20 years, was their Northeast area scout. Etheridge, who was a Giants scout for 19 years, was an area scout in the Southwest.
Notes & quotes: The Giants cut two little-used tight ends, Scott Simonson and Isaiah Seawright, according to the league’s official transactions on Monday. Simonson was cut after Giants training camp last summer and brought back when the team suffered a rash of injuries at the position. He wound up on injured reserve. Seawright has not played an NFL game and served a four-game suspension while on injured reserve in 2019 for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
