#Joe Judge carrying Bill Belichick leadership-council model to Giants

In some ways, it is remarkable how much responsibility Bill Belichick heaped on Joe Judge.

Take a look at Judge’s assignment for the 2019 season: fill the demanding job of special teams coordinator and, oh, by the way, also add position coach duties (wide receivers) to the already-crammed hours in his day. This is not common practice, giving a coordinator a duel role — coaching the receivers on an NFL team is a full-time gig.

There was even more, under the surface, Belichick at times asked Judge to handle during Judge’s eight years with the Patriots. Belichick comes off like a curmudgeon, but he understands the value of keeping the lines of communication open with his players. To that end, Belichick formed a leadership council in New England and assigned Judge as the main liaison from the coaching staff to interact with that select group.

So, it comes as no surprise the first-time head coach will carry over that concept to the Giants.

“We definitely will,’’ Judge told The Post recently. “Nothing’s been formally structured right now. Normally those start to emerge in the spring. Really with our new exposure to these players, we wanted to go ahead and get through a spring.’’

The spring and early summer was filled with all sorts of COVID-19-driven virtual and remote dissemination of football information, as well as several discussions on the social justice issues sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mostly, Judge discussed this with a few of the older players on the roster.

“But it’s not going to silence anybody’s voice,’’ Judge said. “All the conversations are open to all the players.’’

Team captains for Judge’s first season with the Giants will be elected by their peers in the locker room.

“They need to represent the team, and you want to emphasize to them it’s not a popularity contest,’’ Judge said. “You’re electing people to represent you.’’

Judge, with feedback from his coaching staff, will select the players to make up his leadership council. This will get done in training camp or closer to the start of the season.

“We’ll grab some guys we believe represent a larger part of the team,’’ Judge said. “We don’t have a specific number narrowed down. I’ve been exposed to all different ways of doing that, whether it’s one guy per position or guys of different ages. For us, we have to identify the makeup of our team in training camp and see what the best fit we can do with that.’’

Heeding a “suggestion’’ — more like a directive — from co-owner John Mara, Tom Coughlin created a leadership council after the 2006 season, and it helped him save his job.

It will be interesting to see which players make Judge’s cut. Two longtime Giants leaders and captains, Eli Manning and Zak DeOssie, are recently retired. Given the abundance of youth and the lack of success in recent years, there are few slam-dunk choices.

Saquon Barkley is just 23 and entering his third NFL season, but he is a natural candidate. Daniel Jones, also 23, is the starting quarterback but probably not ready yet. Receiver Sterling Shepard, incredibly, is the longest-tenured Giants player, at five years, and is well-respected.

Nate Solder or Kevin Zeitler are possibilities from the offensive line. Defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson is solid but might not fit the personality profile. Jabrill Peppers is a fierce competitor and could gain admission in only his second year with the Giants. Inside linebacker Blake Martinez will make the defensive calls, but he is a newcomer, as is James Bradberry, the high-priced free agent cornerback.

Nate Ebner, a special teams ace signed this offseason, was part of the leadership council with the Patriots and thus has great familiarity with what Judge wants and expects.

It is a delicate balance. Judge wants players representing the totality of the locker room, young and old, top of the roster to the bottom, individuals who have something to say and are willing to say it. In New England, the leadership group was not made up of a bunch of Tom Brady-types. At various times, Ebner and Matthew Slater were on it, as was Devin McCourty.

Belichick entrusted much of the formation and implementation of his leadership council to Judge and Jack Easterby, the Patriots’ team development director and character coach. Judge and Easterby spent six years together in New England. Easterby left for the Texans in 2019 to become their executive vice president of team development.

“To me, the biggest thing is, who’s willing to talk to you?’’ Judge said. “You can tell the players willing to walk into your office and sit down across from you and tell you the thing that’s the tough thing to say. That’s the guy who normally needs to be representing the players, because he’s not afraid to speak up on what needs to be said.

“There’s no secrets within the team. The locker room knows. Some guy may be a Pro Bowler or he may all that’s being written about in the papers, but everybody knows the guy who’s really the guy.’’