Every new coach, especially one as young as Joe Judge, needs an ally in the locker room, someone who knows what he is all about and can help spread that message to the players unfamiliar with the new guy in charge.
Nate Ebner is that player for Judge.
The easiest connect-the-dots in this year’s free-agency frenzy was linking Ebner to the Giants. Ebner is a special-teams ace who arrived to the Patriots as a 2012 sixth-round pick out of Ohio State, a former rugby player fitting the unique profile Bill Belichick adores as he unearths undiscovered gems.
That same year, Judge arrived in New England as an assistant special-teams coach. Three years later, Judge was promoted to a coordinator role. The entire NFL existence for Judge and Ebner is intertwined, eight years (and three Super Bowl victories) coaching and covering kicks and grinding away together.
Judge does not sign the players, but there is no doubt Ebner is on board, on a one-year deal worth $2 million, because Judge wanted him on his first Giants roster.
“I’m not going to play out a bunch of different scenarios,’’ Ebner said on a conference call Tuesday. “I’m not going to act like he didn’t have a part in me coming there. I’ve obviously built a good relationship with him and rapport with him … so yeah, we did have a relationship that definitely played a part in me being a Giant. But outside of that it’s a great organization that I’m extremely excited to get to, a great team in a great city with a great fan base that I’m actually just juiced about.’’
Judge no longer presides over special teams — Thomas McGaughey was retained from Pat Shurmur’s staff as the coordinator — but you can be sure the 38-year-old novice head coach will lean on Ebner, 31, to help disseminate his message. Ebner did not last eight years in the demanding and unyielding Patriots environment without buying what Belichick, and Judge, were selling.
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“I’m gonna let Joe speak for himself on his message and culture and all that stuff,’’ Ebner said. “I can tell you this, whatever is asked of me, not only from Joe but the rest of that coaching staff, I’m gonna do as best I can to do it to the best of my ability. That to me is what I kinda watched in New England some great players do and that’s kind of a mindset that as a team if we can all buy into together then we’ll be in there playing for each other. That’s what great teams do, they play for each other.’’
Ebner qualifies as an expert on all things Joe Judge, who was a surprise hire by the Giants.
“Joe works extremely hard,’’ Ebner said. “I’m going to say that probably a couple more times. He pays attention to the details, really, really pays attention to the details. He comes to work with a lot of energy, he did that consistently in the eight years I’ve known him. I think that’s a genuine part of him. I think he’s gonna bring that same energy and hopefully that same attention to detail and work ethic. At the end of the day, he cares about his guys. I can’t say that about a lot of coaches. And I think that’s special and that’s hopefully going to make a lot of players want to play for him.’’
Ebner and Matthew Slater — perhaps the best special-teams player in the league — helped the Patriots finish in the top five in special teams two of the past three years. Slater, now the longest-tenured Patriots player with Tom Brady’s move to the Buccaneers, recently signed a two-year extension and heads into his 14th year in New England.
“I’ve spent more time in meetings, more time on the practice field with Nate Ebner than any player, maybe in my career,’’ Slater said on a conference call Monday. “So, his value to what we did in the kicking game, it just was off the charts. It would never be something that gets talked about because there’s so many intricacies within the kicking game that get overlooked, but the things that he has done for our football team on and off the field over the last eight years have been tremendous.’’