Post-Game Transcript: Head Coach Pat Shurmur

NYG Postgame (vs. Eagles) Transcripts: Head Coach Pat Shurmur -- December 29, 2019

Opening Statement: So Penny, Elijhaa, was out early with a back. It kind of took us out of some groupings when your fullback goes out, but we made do. Then Pio (Jon Halapio), they are looking at his Achilles. I don’t have any information on that. End of a long year. I think you watched all our guys fought and battled. We had a couple of mistakes there in the second half that kind of let the score stretch out, but they continued to battle. I’ve talked about that all year. We’re not a good enough team yet to win those close games, but someday we will be. I’m proud of those guys. I told the young players that by the way that the roster was structured this year, it was a gift. It was a gift to them to be able to, because they were our best players, to be able to play as much football as they did. At some point here in the middle of February, they’ll be sitting on their couch and they’re going to look back or shake their head and say, ‘Holy cow, what happened?’ Then they need to use it as motivation to have a great offseason and come back stronger than ever so that in these close games we can find a way to make enough plays to win them. I had no problem with the way they trained. All year long, you didn’t get a chance to watch these guys practice. They practiced hard, they practiced intentionally. I had no problem with how hard they play. We’ve just got to find a way to make more plays and win more in the critical situations in games that are critical to winning. I think this group as we come together and add more pieces will be able to do that. With that, I’ll take your questions.

Q: Have you heard any assurances from ownership that you’ll be the head coach next year to see these guys get better?
A: I haven’t had those types of conversations. If and when I do, I’m not going to talk to you about it. At some point, what is said will be revealed. If I’m back, I’m looking forward to working with this young talent. If I’m not, whoever is coaching this team has got a great group of young players, the dead money goes away, there’s going to be cap space, we’ve got picks. So, there’s ways to improve the team. If I’m not here, that’s what the new coach has to look forward to. If I am here, I can’t wait to get back to work. That’s about as honest and clear as I can make it. But, I will say this— I don’t have anything planned to talk to ownership at this point. Typically, that’s what you do when the season is over, and I will never share with you what those conversations reveal.

Q: What would be your strongest defense on why you deserve to continue coaching this group?
A: That’s, again, my conversation for ownership when we have those conversations. I think we’ve, we didn’t win enough games, right? I own that. I don’t make any excuses for that. But, I do know that there’s things that happened this year where this team improved in a lot of ways. I feel like it’s only going to get better. The structure of how we’re built, we’ll be able to improve now, quickly, and you saw a lot of young players out there playing hard that will only improve with time. So, that’s where we’re at.

Q: Can you talk about the growth of Daniel Jones?
A: No question, certainly. I think in our tenure here, we took a quarterback in the second year, and he was able to play 12 games against really good competition and battle and do many, many good things; many good things that are only going to help him next year and beyond.

Q: What’s one thing you would work with on Daniel? What would be the top priority in the offseason?
A: Well, I think you work with everything. From his footwork…you know, the fundamentals of playing a position you work on every day. You just continue to do that. I think he’ll be able to sit back and look at all of the plays that we called in situations and maybe think about where the ball might go or if it should go someplace quicker or if I should… all of the things that you look at. So, it’s a big basket of things I would say.

Q: You’ve mentioned often about the young players on the roster and things like that. Very often they are the best players you had. Given the youth of the team and the fact that this was a rebuilding situation, is it fair to just look at the wins and losses and say this is who stays and this is who goes?
A: Because of the wins and losses? Well, we’re all part of this and we all own the fact that we didn’t win enough games. I think we evaluate what this team looks like moving forward and make the changes necessary and move on. I think that’s what any team does. We’re one of the 20 teams that aren’t in the playoffs. The goal is to next year to be one of the 12 so that you’re in the position to compete for it all. There are 19 other teams, 19 other locker rooms, very similar to this. Might’ve won a couple more games than we did, but the reality of it is just like us, where this was their last game. That’s where it’s real. The evaluation of who goes and who stays, I don’t know. We’ve got to figure that out. It sounds like by your questioning it might start with me. So, we’ll figure that out as we go.

Q: When John (Mara) spoke before the season, he talked about needing to see progress. What do you say to the progress you’ve made?
A: I’ll talk about what that means when we have a chance to visit. That’s what I’ll say. I’m really not going to share anymore along those lines at this time publicly.

Q: Would you say you’re surprised that these questions about you being back next year are coming up at all?
A: No, not at all. This is a ‘wins’ business— I get it, I get it. We’ve been talking about this for, I think, about six weeks. You’ve been asking me the same questions for six weeks. So, I don’t know if I’m getting good at answering them, but I’m answering them a lot. But, that’s the reality of this business. When you don’t win, that’s the line of questioning. Listen, I get that, I get that.

Q: Do you have a problem with the fact that you’re the only one available to answer those questions?
A: Nope. Not at all. We’re playing football now. The way this works is I visit with you five times a week. So, no, that’s just the way this goes.

Q: What did you say to your team after the game? They obviously know that the future is uncertain.
A: Again, I won’t share… I’ll share bits and pieces of it, but the general message aside from the fact that tomorrow we’ll exit, they’ve done everything, they’ve tried to do everything right all year. So, let’s do tomorrow right as well. Again, I will say this about these settings, including the locker room, there’s a lot of faces in there that I don’t recognize. Most of my messaging to the team is internal, so when we get back to the building, some of what I want to expound upon, I’ll share with them then.

Q: You’ve said that before, who are you referring to?
A: Have you ever been in there? You can barely move there are so many people with cameras and microphones and all that. I don’t think, I think there should be a little bit of intimacy to a locker room after the game, and it’s just not the case. So, if there’s something that I really want to share with the team, I do it in private. That’s why. They ought to invite you in sometime.

Q: How much solace do you take from the fact that this group played hard for you—is that something that you can hang your hat on?
A: No, there are no moral victories for me. My thoughts were when we scored, Saquon had the long run, we scored and went 17-17, ‘okay, how are we going to win this thing at this point?’ That’s where I’m at.

Q: So, you would say that based on what I’ve heard you say right now, that you left the team better than you found it?
A: I think so, I do. These guys battled. We can talk about the dynamics of how the team was built and where it’s going. We’re building a team. A lot of dead money this year, a lot of cap space next year, and some prime picks where we can use the draft wisely and make decisions on making this team better with impact players. You need to have a quarterback, you need to be able to play defense, you need to run the ball. On defense, you need to have impact players that when they game is on the line can do things. We have some strung throughout this roster and we’ll have a chance to go get more. I think that’s exciting.

Q: As the head coach, why don’t you have control over who’s in the locker room when you’re talking to your team?
A: Because this is the NFL, that’s all.