Joe Judge will shake up Giants with key Bill Belichick philosphy

Are the Patriots a run-first or pass-first offense?

Are they a man-to-man or zone coverage defense?

Are they built around stars or uncovering hidden gems?

Yes. To all of it.

There is no telling how the Patriots will look from year to year — sometimes from game to game — but there is nothing blind about new coach Joe Judge’s vision for the Giants. He wants what Bill Belichick has — and not just the Hall of Fame quarterback.

“What I learned from Coach Belichick was real simple: Be flexible within your personnel,” Judge said. “Don’t try to shove round pegs into square holes. Figure out what you have. Let them play to their strengths.”

Sounds obvious enough. Except both Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur — former Giants head coaches who called their own offensive plays — could be accused of rigidly sticking to their playbooks.

McAdoo was married to “11” personnel (one running back, one tight end, three receivers) at a rate far greater than the NFL average, even when the health of the roster dictated the Giants should adapt. Shurmur rarely schemed anything eccentric for Saquon Barkley as a receiver and didn’t get the most out of Odell Beckham Jr.

This is the spot where Judge’s background as special teams coordinator could be beneficial as he develops his offensive and defensive identities.

“Belichick has a segment of his roster that is specifically all about special teams,” NFL on CBS pregame analyst Boomer Esiason told The Post. “Brandon Bolden, for instance, sometimes carries the ball 10 times in a game; sometimes you never see him in the offensive game plan.

“That’s the beauty about being a special teams coach. You have to have a number of people able to play a number of positions simply because if somebody gets injured you have to be able to make the change within the middle of the game. You are dealing with the entire roster, and that’s a good thing.”

Judge’s overall philosophy will be “to put pressure on opponents.” Other former Belichick assistants have tried to copy the blueprint to mixed results.

“To be able to do all the things they are able to do in New England, you have to pick the right players; you have to make sure you are paying people what they are worth and not what they think they are worth,” Esiason said.

“You have to have tough practices and make sure you have a roster that understands those are for a reason. He’s trying to bring the Patriots to the Giants. That sounds good. Now we just have to make sure it can happen.”

One example of the Patriots’ flexibility: When Rob Gronkowski retired after the 2018 season, the Patriots dropped from an 88 percent reliance on “11” and “21” (two running backs, one tight end, two receivers) personnel to 73 percent, mixing in many other varied formations, according to Sharp Football Stats.

The Giants are built with heavy draft and/or contract investments in their offensive personnel, including Barkley, receivers Sterling Shepard and Golden Tate and tight end Evan Engram. So, maybe, at least at the start of the Judge Era, the flexibility principle applies more on defense, where the Giants need a makeover, anyway.

The Patriots rotated as many as 20 players on defense in some games.

“We’re going to play whatever is best for our personnel: 3-4, 4-3, man coverage, zone coverage,” Judge said. “We’ll find out what fits us best … and whatever is best week by week by opponent is how we’ll address it.”

Giants co-owner John Mara doesn’t expect to go on a spending spree in free agency, despite the possibility of more than $80 million in cap space to improve an underwhelmed and inexperienced 2019 roster. Judge won’t be begging for it.

“Don’t sit in a meeting and tell me what you don’t have in a player. Don’t tell me they can’t do certain things,” Judge said. “Tell me what they can do and then we’ll figure out as coaches: How we can use that?”

For every Randy Moss and Rob Gronkowski all-time great, the Patriots have two in the castoff mold of Wes Welker and Julian Edelman … or Mike Vrabel and Kyle Van Noy.

This is where the Giants are headed.

“How many castoffs do you see around the league in the NFL on another team that everyone says, ‘Wow, how’d they get that out of them?’” Judge said. “Maybe they just weren’t closing their eyes to what they could do.”

For more on the Giants, listen to the latest episode of the “Blue Rush” podcast: