On Friday, the Giants officially announced the hiring of Jason Garrett as the team's offensive coordinator under head coach Joe Judge.
Garrett joined the Giants Huddle podcast to discuss returning to the team he once played for, his initial conversations with Judge, and his opinion on Daniel Jones.
During his playing career, Garrett was a backup quarterback for the Giants from 2000-03, and now that he's back with Big Blue, he's excited to get to work with such a storied franchise.
"Excited to be back. Had a great visit there this past week and obviously have a little history with the Giants," Garrett said. "It's fun to be back in the building. Can't wait to get going.
"It's just a first-class organization. You think about the history and tradition of the New York Giants franchise and what the Maras have built and what the Tisches have built, and all the great team, all the great coaches, all the great players who have been a part of this organization throughout its history, and when you're a player in this organization like I was for four years, you feel that. You feel that history, you feel that standard, and again, I was so fortunate to be a part of it."
The 53-year-old Garrett brings his 10 years of head coaching experience to a Giants' staff led by Judge, a first-time head coach.
The former Cowboys head coach said he was already able to have some great conversations with Judge about their football philosophies.
"We had a great day together. I didn't know Joe really well. I've been around him on a couple different occasions and had good conversations with him, really good football conversations, and he and I know a lot of the same people," Garrett said. "I worked for Coach Saban, he worked for Coach Saban and Coach has always said such great things about Joe, and so many other people that he's been around that I've been around say the same thing.
"We visited over the phone this past weekend and had a great talk. It was probably one of those talks, and I don't know how long it went, maybe a half hour, 45 minutes, and it probably could have gone all night. Just talking back and forth, getting to know each other a little bit more, talking about football, and that's when we decided that it would be a good idea to come up and spend the day together, and we did that on Wednesday. I had a great visit with him, a couple members of the staff, other people in the organization, and it just felt right to me. I felt really comfortable to be around him. I think we have shared values as people and shared values as football coaches and what we want to build with the Giants."
As Garrett joins the Giants, he will be tasked with building an offense suited toward now-second-year quarterback Daniel Jones. Working with a young signal-caller is certainly something he's familiar with, as Dak Prescott has had two Pro Bowl seasons since taking over the reins for Dallas as a rookie in 2016.
From an outsider's perspective, Garrett likes what he's seen from Jones.
"We thought a lot of him coming out of college.," said Garrett. "We weren't in the market for a quarterback in the first round the year that he came out. At the same time, you go through that evaluation process and anybody who as around him in our organization with the Cowboys just thought the world of him. He was highly regarded on our draft board.
"I really liked how he played when we played against him and when we saw him on film this year. He was tough, he was competitive, playing the game the right way, which is not easy to do as a rookie quarterback in the NFL, but certainly excited to work with Daniel."