Pat Shurmur upbeat about Giants' preseason
Giants head coach Pat Shurmur walks over to reporters during practice during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 22. Credit: Brad Penner
For many Giants, the preseason wrapped up on Tuesday. Yeah, there’s one last game Thursday, but most of the starters likely will be sitting that out. That left Tuesday’s practice as the final on-field work before preparations begin in earnest for the Jaguars on Sept. 9.
Pat Shurmur seemed pleased with his first summer as head coach.
“I feel like we’ve done a lot of good things,” he said. “I think we’re on the right path. We’ve certainly got a lot of work to do between now and first week, and then teams improve as the season goes along. This is the ultimate team game, you have to practice this game and between the practice sessions you play games.”
On Tuesday that meant putting in a little extra time in the sweltering heat.
“We actually had a little bit more with the idea that we have a game 12 days on the horizon and I think they did a good job with it,” Shurmur said.
So are the Giants ready for the opener?
“Well,” Shurmur said, “we’re going to find that out.”
No-trade clause
There was a time in March when some believed the Giants were going to trade Odell Beckham Jr. and there were a handful of teams sniffing around at the possibility. On Tuesday, co-owner John Mara said that was never really in the team’s plans and that those who wrote such stories “overreacted.”
“Are we going to listen to phone calls when they come in? Yeah, of course, you’re going to do that,” Mara said. “I think it would be irresponsible not to. But there was always an intention that he’d be a part of this team… It was a very, very small chance [of a trade] that was not even worth losing sleep over. We wanted him on the team. I think he knew that. We made that pretty clear to him.”
Giant steps
LB Connor Barwin (soreness) had his most active practice in several weeks. “He’s on the right path,” Shurmur said … Although none of them is likely to play Thursday, at one point WRs Beckham and Sterling Shepard and TE Evan Engram were working with the quarterbacks on the side, fine-tuning their routes.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
