New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur doesn’t believe in a prospective quarterback controversy after first preseason game.
On Thursday, the New York Giants faced off against the New York Jets in their first preseason game at MetLife Stadium. Big Blue won the game 31-22, but that wasn’t what caught most fans’ eyes. What raised many eyebrows was the play from Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones.
The first-year man out of Duke came in on their second offensive drive, going 5-for-5 for 67 yards and a touchdown. The score was a nice 12-yard pass in the back right corner of the endzone to veteran receiver Bennie Fowler.
So should Eli Manning be worried? Is there now potentially going to be a quarterback controversy? Head coach Pat Shurmur doesn’t believe so.
“I think, ‘Slow your roll,'” Shurmur said after the game, per Jared Dubin of CBS Sports. “This is just his first go around. I think he did a good job. As I mentioned, all along he has done nothing to disappoint us, and certainly when you take the team down the field and score a touchdown, that’s a good start. It’s something good to build on. We have a lot of time left before we start playing games. Nothing at this point has changed.”
While Jones’ performance was perfect on the stat sheet, Shurmur pointed out that it wasn’t clear of mistakes.
“He didn’t motion the tight end across on the first play,” Shurmur said. “Those types of things. Things that we see. As I mentioned, to the naked eye, you possibly didn’t see.”
Most people would criticize Shurmur for saying this and say “give the kid a break, he completed every single one of his throws.” But no, that’s not how it works. Shurmur’s a pro football head coach and needs to point stuff out like that, especially when it’s a learning and developing rookie.
The Giants play their second preseason game next Friday, Aug. 16 against the Chicago Bears at MetLife Stadium. It’ll be interesting to see if Jones will be able to build off this initial performance.
