Where’s ‘O’ after OBJ?
Beckham gave Big Blue an extra option with his arm
PHOENIX — Pat Shurmur no longer has Odell Beckham Jr. to throw touchdown passes for him when Eli Manning can’t. So which receiver on the Giants’ roster has the best arm now?
“We will see. Have to have tryouts or something,” Shurmur deadpanned here on Tuesday.
It is a legitimate question, though: Without Beckham, how will this Giants offense erupt?
GM Dave Gettleman, who did not speak with local media at these owners meetings, continued spreading his false narrative Wednesday on NFL Network that Manning “had a heck of a year.”
But people with eyeballs and memories know that last season, Shurmur turned to Beckham twice to throw TD passes and snap a lifeless offense out of a funk.
In Week 5 at Carolina, the Giants were trailing the Panthers, 17-3, in the second quarter when Beckham threw a 57yard touchdown pass to Saquon Barkley. The Giants lost, and Sterling Shepard lost his cool after one horrendous Manning interception, but they scored 31 points.
In Week 13 hosting the Bears, the Giants were down, 14-10, after arguably Manning’s worst half of the season when Beckham threw a 49yard touchdown passes to Russell Shepard. The Giants won in overtime, 30-27.
Ideally, the Giants would have their starting quarterback make these throws or would get a backup QB who could step in and help (and not get the GM and coach fired when he does).
But the Giants have drafted Senior Bowl MVPs in back-toback years. They cut Jerry Reese’s guy, 2017 third-rounder Davis Webb. And they seem likely to cut Gettleman’s guy, Kyle Lauletta, who Shurmur went out of his way to call “a small school quarterback” on Tuesday.
(If they draft Duke’s Daniel Jones, that will make three straight Senior Bowl MVPs to Big Blue).
The Giants of course are going to do due diligence if/ when Arizona’s Josh Rosen becomes available via trade. But that is nothing new, and Rosen remains an outside possibility.
It could work if the value is too good to pass up (giving up only a late third-round pick, for example). But I do not see him as Shurmur’s preferred QB, and I believe they would be outbid anyway by the Chargers or Washington.
So what’s the answer to helping Manning this fall, especially if the Giants draft a QB who they intend to sit a year? Does Barkley become the passer?
He did it at Penn State. He threw a 16-yard TD pass against Indiana in 2017 and hit another 20-yard completion at Michigan State later that season. But of course, Barkley had 352 touches last season, so how much more can he do?
“It is a good thing when he touches the ball,” Shurmur said of Barkley’s workload. “I do think the ball needs to be spread around. In games where you look at the final stat sheet and see six or seven guys touched the ball, I think that is the way you want to play offense.”
Those six or seven guys in 2019 for now are supposed to include Golden Tate, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram. Trade rumors have swirled around Engram since last fall’s deadline, and he is not an excellent blocker, so he’s less well-rounded than Shurmur’s prototypical tight end.
But Engram is “a willing blocker,” Shurmur explained, and he can fly in the open field.
“He can block,” Shurmur said. “Listen, I think he can block better than you do. How bout that?”
Shepard and Tate would seem to be redundant as slot receivers with outside capabilities, but Shurmur insisted their versatility gives him good options as a play-caller.
Shepard and Engram are both Reese draft picks, though, who have endured the frustrations of Manning’s decline. So it wouldn’t be a shock if a team like the Patriots, who need help at receiver and tight end, pursued a trade.
Last year, it’s true: the offense did do some better work in the second half of the season, helped by Jamon Brown’s addition at right guard. But the Giants keep spreading a false narrative there, too, that Beckham’s absence helped them.
Shurmur snuck this in on Tuesday: “Unfortunately, Odell was hurt at the back end of the season, and we were able to score our most points of the year. We will find a way.”
However, with a 1-7 Giants record coming out of the bye, Beckham caught two TD passes and drew a pivotal pass interference penalty on the game-winning drive of a 27-23 win in San Fran.
Then in a 38-35 win over Tampa with Beckham and a 40-16 win at Washington without him, James Bettcher’s defense scored pivotal TDs (Alec Ogletree, Curtis Riley) and intercepted a combined seven passes. The Giants keep forgetting to mention that.
And after a pitiful 17-0 home shutout loss to a 9-7 Titans team at home, Manning did deliver his best performance of the season in Indianapolis in Week 16. Shurmur rolled Manning out more, and the Giants’ O-line rendered the Colts’ pass rush non-existent.
But both the Giants offense and defense fell short at the end. The D had trouble stopping Andrew Luck, and Manning only managed 10 second-half points and threw a game-ending INT.
What will Shurmur do to snap Manning’s offense after its slumber this season without Beckham on the roster? He’s proven his trick plays work, but without No. 13, who knows if they’ll keep reaching the end zone.