Head Coach Pat Shurmur
July 27, 2018
Opening Statement: Yesterday was a great day. Day two here, we’re looking forward to another really good day on the practice field. Driving in this morning, it’s a somber day up in Minneapolis. Tony Sparano’s funeral is today and he was all about family, all about football. [He] lived a really good life and made the world a better place, so I think they’re going to honor him today and they’ll move on, as well. I felt like I needed to say that, I didn’t say anything on Monday, although I did release something on Sunday. When you work with guys early in the morning until late at night, you go through adversity, you quickly become friends and that certainly was the case with Tony. That being said, I’ll try to answer your questions.
Q: Was Snacks [Damon Harrison] limited yesterday?
A: Yeah, we had a plan for him coming in, so we’re going to stick with that and I think you’ll see him out there this weekend.
Q: Why the plan?
A: I think this is typical of how he’s approached other training camps. We just have to be smart about the amount of work. Again, guys are all along that spectrum of experience and the key is to get them the work they need and get them to the first game, so that’s why.
Q: Is that something with him that you want to continue throughout the season and you’re going to kind of manage him or is that specifically for training camp?
A: Yeah, we’re just going to try to get every guy the right amount of work and that’s really what it is.
Q: Is that hard to do, though? You only have a limited number of practices and a limited amount of practices in pads, so I imagine you want to get guys as many reps as you can.
A: No, there’s no question. Again, younger guys can handle and need more reps. Older guys, more experienced guys, can get the right amount of work with the reps they get and we’re not quite in pads yet. We’re working with him behind the scenes and we’ll anticipate him out there this weekend.
Q: How’d Odell [Beckham Jr.] respond to his workload yesterday?
A: Good. I mean, he’s running around. You see he’s very energetic on the practice field. He had some production yesterday, caught a couple balls from Eli [Manning], in there blocking a little bit, and involved with the punt returns. He’s actually fun to be around on the practice field. Everybody locally knows him better than I do and it’s very obvious to me that the guy loves to play football. When you’re in a practice setting like that and you see that, it’s pretty obvious.
Q: Is that different than some stars of his magnitude? I mean, it’s kind of a cliché to say that everybody loves football, but is that a little different?
A: I think the true stars, and I don’t know who you’re referring to, the true stars I’ve been around embrace the work. I think that’s what you see from Odell [Beckham Jr.].
Q: John Mara said yesterday that Saquon [Barkley] is probably the most hyped rookie this franchise has ever had. You’ve talked a little bit about that, showing him where his locker was, where the field is. How cognizant are you of keeping his enthusiasm up?
A: Well, you answered part of my question. He needs to go through the process and he was the second pick in the draft. Certainly, we know what we expect from him. He’s also a rookie and there’s certain things that you have to do. The good news is he understands what he has to do and he’s doing it. That’s what we keep track of.
Q: You think he’ll embrace the fact that he’s a rookie? Some guys try to fast forward the whole process.
A: I don’t know that. He’s a New York Football Giant now and there’s certain things that we’re going to ask him to do and we’re going to train him to do it.
Q: Is he getting treated like a rookie?
A: He’s going to get treated like a Giant. And I’m not trying to be funny. I actually don’t think I’m ever funny [laughs].
Q: Can you talk about how he fit in with the offense with the whole team out on the field yesterday.
A: I thought he did very well. He took the reps, he shared them in there with Jonathan Stewart. I think the important thing, when you watch the way we like to train here, a lot of team plays, we like to get the first, second and third group work. He handled his workload very well.
Q: You don’t have a lot of guys splitting reps like that at their respective positions. What’s behind that approach for you guys with that position with him and [Jonathan] Stewart.
A: We’re trying to train the whole roster. The unfortunate thing about the NFL is injuries. You need new players and so the guys we train, if they don’t make our squad and if they’re trained up properly and they almost made it but didn’t, then those are guys we want to go back and get at some point. The work that they get helps them develop. As coaches, we game plan and develop players. The best way to develop a player is to give him a rep to do it.
Q: Did Landon [Collins] have any limitations yesterday?
A: No, he did pretty much everything. He had a good day. But again, we’re still managing him. Behind the scenes, we’ll go in now and talk about it as we move forward towards practice and after practice, Ronnie (Barnes) will come to me so we sort of tweak it as we go. We have this global plan of how much we want and how much we want guys to get, but then things happen and we need to adjust. That’s why sometimes you’ll see a guy do maybe a little bit more. I’m assuming somebody here is counting reps, who’s out there and who’s not. As you go through that process, it kind of goes like this a little bit.
Q: How long do you wait on making judgments on players? Day one happens, and do you have in your mind this guy is impressing me and this guy isn’t or do you give it some time before?
A: I think we tend to judge as coaches and we fight that being instant evaluators. We need to see guys playing football and the true game of football which happens after the pads. There’s some guys that are timed really fast and they’re fast in shorts and then when the pads go on they look very different. We will constantly evaluate the players, but really the final evaluation on all the players doesn’t come until we hit the 53 [man roster].
Q: All head coaches want an experienced, proven kicker they don’t have to worry about. What’s your sense with [Aldrick] Rosas? You didn’t have him last year, he’s a young guy.
A: Well, I saw a lot of good things in the spring. Based on what I’ve seen, [he’s] got a very strong leg. He improved, in my opinion, his field goal and extra point mechanics through the spring. Hopefully we’ll see that continued improvement.
Q: Sterling Shepard was saying yesterday that this offense won’t be predictable which does represent a change here. When the play caller in you, when you look, you have Evan [Engram] right, Odell [Beckham Jr.] in the slot, Sterling on the other side, Saquon [Barkley] in the backfield, how limitless, if they are, are those opportunities in terms of a play caller?
A: You’re right, you mentioned a lot of really, really good players. It starts by getting them blocked and protecting the quarterback and being able to run the ball when you want to run it and really when they know you’re going to run it and then all that other stuff will take shape. We’re looking forward to putting it all together and everything looks good on paper and now we just have to get trained up and ready to go.
Q: It seemed like Odell [Beckham Jr.] was in the slot quite a bit and playing inside. Is that just where you want to start him out?
A: No, I think we train our receivers to play receiver so they could be detached by themselves, detached with somebody inside them, or in the slot. At this point, it’s conceptual learning. That way there’s flexibility, so that when it’s time to play the game and we actually specifically game plan, they’ve got experience in all areas.
Q: His workload yesterday, was that something you intend to maintain or you’re in a build up process with him?
A: Same thing, we’ll just kind of mark it as we go. It’s important to get out there and practice and embrace the heat, make it our friend, and continue to improve as a team. I think that’s the same thing with each player.
Q: Is this position-less football mindset of having every receiver learn every spot so that way, like you said, when you start to gameplan, you can really target a certain matchup and everyone could do the same thing?
A: I’ve never said position-less, but that’s a good word. I might start using that. Being able to put a player, a specific player in different spots, I think it’s important and I do feel like that puts a little pressure on the defense. They at least have got to have a meeting and decide how to cover a certain player. But you can’t just do that game week, you have to train that throughout and it really has got to be part of your DNA. Then when we decide what we want to do against Jacksonville and Houston and Dallas, as we move through the season, then you’re just kind of fine tuning it instead of revamping it, and so that’s the idea.
