Offensive Coordinator Mike Shula
Q: What has impressed you most about Jones at this point in terms of what he is able to do out there as a rookie?
A: I think there is a few things. Again, we’re still in the offseason. He’s got a fast mind, he picks things up pretty well. The things that you ask him to do to maybe make a couple changes, maybe that were different to what he was used to in college, he does pretty quickly. Whether or not its technique in the pocket, everything that we have asked him to do he’s done it pretty quickly. I think the other things is he’s pretty athletic and he’s very serious about his job. We all are but you see that maturity level in him. Which is obviously one of the reasons we got him here.
Q: It looks like his decision making is pretty quick, is it quicker than the typical rookie?
A: It’s hard to say. Rookies are always going to be (thinking) you have to get the ball out quicker. For the most part if it’s not quick enough the first time he runs the play the second time it’s usually pretty quick. I think again back to the learning and kind of how he picks things up. I think it’s kind of on par of what we thought when we drafted him.
Q: Do you think his mobility has been underrated?
A: I think he has that element. With his size, he’s fast. He has straight on speed, he’s fast and he’s got good feet in the pocket. He’s got some good quickness, he’s a good athlete. He’s one of those guys that if you’re playing a pick-up game in any sport you are probably going to pick him pretty close to number one.
Q: During this three-day span what do you think should be his biggest takeaway?
A: I think the biggest thing is to just kind of stay on track with what he’s doing. At this position as we know you want to make the right decision, get the ball to the right receiver on time and accurately. As you continue to do that, the more consistently you do that, the better you are going to be. I think that’s his goal each and every day. I think the other thing, kind of getting back to the first two questions, that has shown out that’s impressive is if he has a bad play an interception or a forced throw, something that’s bad, maybe he has a mental error, at least right now it doesn’t bother him and he goes on to the next play. He really wants to make sure he doesn’t do it again. When we debrief after practice in our meetings he’s really good about that. He takes a lot of pride in not making that same mistake.
Q: I don’t want to compare him to anybody else, but you coached Cam (Newton) you know what a mobile running threat quarterback can bring to an offense. Can you see that dynamic with Daniel moving forward?
A: Probably the difference is Cam is so big. Cam’s 250, we got him at 249 but he probably played at a little more than that after. You did things with Cam that you probably would never do with any other quarterback maybe ever, just the physical part of it. Having a quarterback run power which is an inside power gap scheme that you give to the big fullbacks. Other than that I would say there are some similarities with his feet and his quickness. So, there’s some things that we could possibly look into with him running the ball a little bit.
Q: How has Kyle been – given where he is on the depth chart?
A: He’s been good, Kyle’s been great. We talked before and after the draft. As we all know in football and life whatever we are doing the only thing we can control is yourself. Just keep working on getting better and when you have your opportunity make the best of it. You can see with him, with his comfort level compared to this time last year and where he has come from. He’s got a lot better feel of our offense. He’s throwing the ball pretty well out there. We are just kind of easing him into some to getting some reps.
Q: It didn’t look like Eli was throwing the ball as well as he’s done in the past, did you see anything out of him, what have you thought of his performance?
A: I don’t know if I agree with that. I think he is throwing it pretty good. I think there’s been some really good connections down the field with both Shep and Golden Tate and really with some of those other guys, Cody (Latimer) and Bennie (Fowler). I said a month ago, he looks in better shape than he was last year, I still think that. I think he’s really dialed in. We have a really good room, we have some really smart quarterbacks. We just have to continue getting the most out of all of them, getting them all ready. That’s our job as coaches, getting them all ready to go win on Sunday.
Q: A couple young guys seem to be open quite a bit today. Conrad and Darius Slayton seem to be coming on. What have they shown you?
A: They both had good days today. I think Slayton has been pretty consistent. He’s been a really good pick for us. As long as he stays on track he’s got good speed, he uses his hands you can see. He’s got more confidence in his hands, he’s catching the ball more consistently. I think he’s a good route runner, that was one thing kind of coming out of the draft I was anxious to see how he did with maybe our routes, which were maybe a little bit different that the routes he ran at Auburn. He does a good job at the top end of those routes. I think we are going to continue finding out as much as we can and want to keep giving them more and more. Those young guys too, you start them out learning one position then kind of want to grow them. Because at that position they have to learn more than one position. At the receiver position they have to know all three spots, we are starting to ease him into that as well.
Q: With Saquon’s involvement in the offense do you have to plan to give him breaks in games?
A: I think Coach Johnson does a really good of keeping those guys fresh throughout the game. Selfishly as a coordinator and probably all the Giants fans, you want him in there every single play because you don’t ever want him to miss out on an opportunity. I think there is a happy medium to make sure he’s fresh throughout and don’t just kill him. We’ve got to keep that in mind as we put together our game plans. We’ve got other guys, Wayne Gallman has another year in our system. We are going to be looking at Paul Perkins, he was hurt all of last year so we have to find out when he’s not in there we have to make sure that we can still operate our offense the way we would for the most part.
Q: What has Paul Perkins done to impress you to earn another opportunity?
A: I remember him coming out of college and I really liked him coming out of college. Last year obviously he got hurt, he spent the whole year on IR. Now he’s getting a lot of reps. He’s a guy that can do a lot of things, he can pass protect, he can run the football obviously, he’s pretty good out of the backfield. We want to have him continue getting better at all those things. You guys saw last year we don’t dress a lot of backs so the guys that are dressing have to be able to do all those things. We want them to be able to be productive on first and second down but also on third down and that would involve pass protection and catching the football.
Q: How has the gelling process come along with the offensive line?
A: I think the guys that we’ve added over the course of last season and this season have brought a lot of character, intelligence, competitiveness, integrity to that room. I think it didn’t show as early as we wanted it to last year. I think it showed pretty well at the end of the year. I think we’ve kind of picked up, in fact improved since then. We are going to be leaning on them, they are going to be the starting point of our offense. Everyone knows we have Saquon, we want to run the football, we are going to be balanced. To do that it’s got to start with the offensive line. We want to run the ball, when we want to run it, we want to throw that ball when we want to throw it. To do that it starts up front. We are going to lean heavy on those guys.
Q: Coach Shurmur said early in the offseason that if your offensive line is the strength of your team you can compete for a championship, do you feel at this point the offensive line is the strength of your team?
A: I think they are getting there, I think we’ve got a lot of strengths. You want those guys to be your leaders. As we continue through the offseason and once we get into training camp and get everybody back healthy I think we are going to see more and more of that. Hopefully you have 11 leaders out there, and they all feed off each other. Whether it’s the offensive line and Saquon so to speak and the receivers and quarterbacks and all that stuff. All 11 parts working together to keep us balanced and moving the ball and scoring points.
