EMPTY GARDEN Flowers gone as Giants move on at tackle
Ereck Flowers’ time as a Giant is over.
GM Dave Gettleman, who mistakenly retained Flowers as a Week 1 starter this offseason, cut bait on Monday.
“I think it’s just kind of run its course,” head coach Pat Shurmur said Monday at the facility.
Officially, Gettleman’s plan is to release Flowers if he can’t trade him by 4 p.m. today, according to sources. But the Daily News has learned that as of late Monday afternoon, Flowers was gone from the building and effectively off the team already.
Shurmur confirmed that by saying Flowers “was not out there today” for the team’s walkthrough on a short week for Thursday night’s game against the visiting Philadelphia Eagles (2-3).
Shurmur wished Flowers well, and Eli Manning diplomatically said “I appreciate everything he’s done.”
“I appreciate the way he’s played hurt and handled a tough situation,” Manning said. “Even these last weeks, when you’re told someone else is playing, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. I hate to lose a teammate.”
Flowers, 24, Jerry Reese’s ninth overall pick in 2015 out of Miami, played in 51 games and started 48 of them across four seasons, mostly at left tackle.
But the 6-6, 334-pounder never developed the proper technique to consistently protect Eli Manning, hampering the Giant offense. And Flowers’ attitude was as problematic as his play.
Flowers, who reportedly threw in the towel on the Giants’ Week 17 finale last season, chafed this offseason at the signing of Nate Solder
to replace him at left tackle.
Flowers did not report for the early weeks of Giants offseason workouts under Shurmur and yet still was handed the starting right tackle job.
Within two weeks, Gettleman knew he had made a huge mistake. The Giants benched Flowers for Chad Wheeler in Week 3 in Houston. They played Spencer Pulley over Flowers as an extra tackle in Week 4 against the Saints. Pulley was about to enter as Wheeler’s replacement Sunday in Charlotte if Wheeler’s hand injury had caused him to miss time.
And now Flowers is out, leaving Landon Collins (second round, 33rd overall) as the only Giants draft pick remaining of six from 2015. Flowers’ exit also means all five starters from the 2017 Giants offensive line are no longer on the roster.
Wheeler said of Flowers’ release: “Anything can happen. It’s week-by-week (in the NFL) so you never know.”
The second-year pro out of USC said of his own play: “I can always be better. Obviously there are things I want to improve this week. It’s a short week, so I’ve got to just be mentally prepared and come out Thursday rolling.”
The Giants like Wheeler a lot, though. He endured a difficult Week 3 matchup against J.J. Watt but has given them physicality in the run game and more reliability from down-to-down. He also played through a hand injury.
“I don’t think I missed a snap, right?” Wheeler said, when told he’d been announced as questionable.
He did not, and so now he is part of the Giants’ future, while Flowers is officially — finally — in the past.
VERNON COULD GO THURSDAY
Olivier Vernon had family up to visit on Sunday and watched the Giants’ crushing 33-31 loss to the Panthers from the comfort of his own home.
He’d much rather be uncomfortable, though, in uniform with his teammates. And there is hope that he’ll make his season debut Thursday night against the Philadelphia Eagles.
For while Vernon was limited in Monday’s practice by his high left ankle sprain, he upgraded his status from “optimistic” last week to “very optimistic” in a conversation with the News.
“I want to be out there being able to perform,” Vernon, 28, told the Daily News. “If I could just get — nobody’s ever 100 percent — but if I could just get to where I feel comfortable, where I won’t be a liability, then I’m gonna go out there and be with my team and be able to contribute. And that’s it.”