News » Pat Shurmur defends Ereck Flowers

Lorenzo Carter Jerseys Stitched , other Monday takeaways Much of Pat Shurmur’s Monday media availability was devoted to questions about the play of Ereck Flowers in Sunday’s 20-15 loss by the New York Giants to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Shurmur said he had not considered removing Flowers from the game despite his struggles with penalties and pass protection.“He’s like every player. I think I know where you’re going with this, he’s like every player,” Shurmur said. “He had a lot of really good plays and he had a couple that he’d like to have back.“He had the tripping penalty and then on the hold, and that happens frequently, the quarterback scrambled, which was good, and unfortunately there’s times when those holds occur. That was the gist of it the first drive.”The only reserve tackle on the roster is second-year man Chad Wheeler. “We’re just going to try to get better. As you know, I’m fond of our roster. I’m fond of our offensive linemen,” Shurmur saids. “Ereck had a lot of really good plays yesterday, so what we’re going to do is try to help him with some of the technique work that he can improve on, just like every player, to eliminate some of those mistakes. You just keep working with him Youth B.J. Hill Jerseys , and then we always rotate guys through in the event that we have injuries. You don’t see that, but that happens.”Here are some of the other takeaways from Shurmur’s press briefing.Wayne Gallman the only injury of noteIt was apparent Sunday that Gallman is the backup to Saquon Barkley. Jonathan Stewart didn’t play until Gallman left the game with a knee injury.“We’ll just see where he’s at. He’s questionable moving forward,” Shurmur said.The last punt return of the gameShurmur was asked Sunday and again Monday if he thought about using Odell Beckham to return the game’s final punt, which was muffed by Kaelin Clay. He said he would “possibly” do so in the future but had not considered it Sunday.“Especially in that situation, I mentioned I didn’t because we were going for the block. Typically in that situation, the returner knows there’s a decent chance you might fair catch it. He (Kaelin Clay) did have a little more space than you normally have, he just misfielded it,” Shurmur said.The play of cornerback Eli Apple“I thought he played a really solid game. He was competitive in coverage, made a couple plays on the ball, and I liked it. It was a good opening game for him,” Shurmur said.On the idea too many passes went to Odell Beckham Jr.Beckham had 11 receptions on 15 targets as Eli Manning threw the ball 37 times. That means the ball went in Beckham’s direction 40.5 percent of the time when Manning let it go.“That’s the way the progressions were going. Fifteen shots to Odell. I think we might be here some day when he doesn’t get that many and you’re saying, why don’t you throw it to him 15 times? B.J. Hill Jerseys Stitched ,” Shurmur said. “Again, every snap was not man and so there were some progression-related throws where, on a couple of those underneath throws to Odell, the initial read was maybe Saquon would run a wheel route. It just happens that way, and ideally, all the eligible receivers should get touches. I think that’s an important way to play offense, because I trust all the guys that are out there to make good catches.” Wide receiver says he is ready for leadership role"Sterling Shepard admitted Monday that he was “a little shocked” when the New York Giants traded Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns, but that it was also a reality check for him.“I think, but you sit back and you look at it, it’s kind of the nature of the business,” Shepard said. “That was a point for me to really sit back and realize that this is a business, and that’s just how things go sometimes.” The business was recently kind to Shepard as he is received a four-year White Eli Manning Jerseys , $41 million contract extension to remain with the Giants.“It came up kind of quickly. We got it done fairly fast. I think we went back and forth maybe three or four times, but it was all worth it -- about a month and a half, two months. It was done fairly quickly,” Shepard said.“I knew it was a possibility. I didn’t know how quickly it was going to go, or what the starting point was going to be, but I knew it was a possibility after the season. My agent contacted me. I had spoken with him, and they were pretty sure that it would get done before camp started. It was an exciting moment.”A few other takeaways from Shepard’s conference call with media, held the first day of the teams’ offseason workouts.He will miss Beckham “I will miss him in a lot of ways. I learned a lot from him on the field. That’s like a brother to me. That’ll never be lost, but just being able to talk to him on game days on what we see. That’s something that we did all the time. Just different things that we saw on the field, and how to go about handling them. He’s one of the best receivers in the game, in my opinion. It’s great to have that type of guy on your team that you could bounce ideas off of and share what’s going on through their eyes.”On new wide receiver Golden Tate“We definitely are similar when it comes to our game. I was pretty excited, to be honest. To have a veteran like that to be able to -- Odell is gone and that was the guy that I bounced ideas off of. To have a guy that’s been in the league that long Eli Manning Jerseys 2019 , and to have been around, it’s great to have people like that that you can talk to about the game. I was pretty excited, and I have no doubt in my mind that we will be successful. We’re both the type of guys that can play inside and outside, and I think coach will use us in a similar way that he used (Vikings WR Adam) Thielen and (Vikings WR Stefon) Diggs, and them. So, I don’t see that being an issue at all.”On becoming a veteran team leader “I think Odell going down kind of helped me with the leadership part of that. Being able to handle guys coming to me for some help on the playbook, or whatever it may be. I think that kind of helped me out the past 10 games with that aspect. It’s kind of different. You go from having a guy like Odell and having a guy like (former Giants WR) Brandon Marshall and those types of guys in the room, and now you’re the only one that’s kind of looked at for advice. Like I said, I feel like I have been prepped for that, and I’m ready for that.”