Patriots hire former Giants HC Joe Judge as offensive assistant

Reports surfaced earlier on Tuesday that the New England Patriots were "working on a deal" that would result in a reunion with former New York Giants head coach Joe Judge, who was fired from that position in January. Judge worked for the Patriots from 2012 through the 2019 season as an assistant under coach Bill Belichick. 

It turns out Judge didn't want to wait to get back to work. 

The Patriots confirmed Tuesday afternoon that they hired Judge as an offensive assistant. 

The last time Judge, 40, was directly associated with the Patriots, he served as their special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach for the 2019 season. He first became an assistant special teams coach in 2012 and was promoted to special teams coach three years later. 

The Giants hired Judge as head coach in January 2020, and that experiment ended poorly for just about everyone involved. Under Judge, Big Blue went 10-23 across two seasons and lost six consecutive games to finish this past campaign. 

"I said before the season started that I wanted to feel good about the direction we were headed when we played our last game of the season. Unfortunately, I cannot make that statement, which is why we have made this decision," Giants co-owner John Mara said in last month's release regarding Judge's dismissal.

Former Buffalo Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen was later hired as new Giants general manager, and Schoen selected Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as his head coach.