New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur left a strong impression with Minnesota Vikings leader Mike Zimmer in their time together.
New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur left the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator job to come lead Big Blue. However, he left no ill will in the head of his former boss Mike Zimmer, who was effusive in his praise for Shurmur, according to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.
“Pat was, number one, he’s a great person, heck of a football coach,” Zimmer said. “He was always trying to be innovative and find a way to obviously help the quarterback and try to move the football. But I think the biggest thing with Pat, especially the last year he was with me, was it was important for him to figure out how to help the team win, and I think he always had that in his mind when we talked about what we had to do as a team and how we had to approach games and things like that. He did a great job for us here and we miss him.”
Shurmur served as tight ends coach for Zimmer to start 2016, but was named interim offensive coordinator after Norv Turner resigned. The interim tag was removed before the 2017 season, after which Shurmur came to New York.
Shurmur was credited with helping Case Keenum to his career season with the Vikings after Sam Bradford suffered a season-ending injury. While he was unable to recreate that magic with Eli Manning, he has taken full advantage of Daniel Jones’ increased mobility and has used more zone reads, including one that went for a touchdown.
Shurmur, who won the 2017 Assistant Coach of the Year while serving as Zimmer’s offensive coordinator, will have to guide Jones past the best defense he has faced in his very young career.
It will be a great test of Shurmur’s scheme after taking on two weaker defense to start the Jones era. He’ll also have to do it without Saquon Barkley.
His old boss thinks he might just be up for the challenge.
