Although New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur was not the team's first choice, he is starting to prove he may have been the right one. Among the telling signs of his candidacy was his plan to restore the Giants' atrocious offensive line.
Fortunately, Shurmur has the experience to back his vision after what he had accomplished with the Minnesota Vikings over the past two seasons. According to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, he is planning to once again make the offensive line a point of emphasis for New York this offseason:
“I think there’s a great example of that, what we went through in Minnesota,’’ Shurmur said. “We didn’t change the oil up there, we changed the transmission. We went and got two free-agent offensive linemen, we drafted a center that played like a veteran, and we transformed the offensive line that helped us do the things that helped us win 14 games.
“And so I think it’s very important, no matter how good your offensive line is and your defensive line, you have to address those issues constantly, because if you can’t block them and you can’t pressure the quarterback, this game gets really, really, really hard.’’
After a disappointing end to the 2016 campaign in Minnesota, Shurmur helped orchestrate quite a rebuild along the Vikings' offensive line through free agency and the draft. Needless to say, it paid huge dividends for journeyman quarterback Case Keenum after a career-year.
Unfortunately, that may spell bad news for the current linemen on the roster. Guard Justin Pugh and Weston Richburg are unrestricted free agents while the future of tackle Ereck Flowers still has yet to be determined.
Shurmur has expressed how excited he is to work with quarterback Eli Manning. As a result, it seems he is going to do his best to help shore up the protection for the 37-year-old Manning.