Big Blue need to go nab their guy
PAT Shurmur is no rocket scientist. He has not been nurtured and developed by Bill Belichick. He has not had the good fortune to coach Tom Brady. He does not ooze with charisma, and who the hell knows if he can be a CEO and command the room?
But he is a quarterback whisperer of sorts, Sam Bradford and Donovan McNabb and Nick Foles have sworn by him. The Giants have Davis Webb and the second pick of the NFL draft, and perhaps Eli Manning. He has two years of head-coaching experience with the Browns, which in Dawg Pound years might as well be 10, and he sure has somethingg to pprove.
But just because he would not be the sexy hire like Josh McDaniels doesn’t mean the Giants should not make a deal with him and make a deal with him now, before they lose him to the Cardinals.
All signs point to Matt Patricia as the next head coach of the Lions, and with McDaniels expected to take the Colts job, there is no time for the Giants to waste.
If GM Dave Gettleman and ownership are indeed so high on Shurmur, they must make the move now to lock him up (wink wink) before it’s too late.
Shurmur, Mike Zimmer’s offensive coordinator, watched incredulously and joyfully when Case Keenum threw a miracle 61-yard TD pass to Stefon Diggs as time expired to give the Vikings a 29-24 victory over the Saints to send them to the NFC Championship game against the Eagles next Sunday night.
Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo told me this about Shurmur last month:
“I always thought Pat was an excellent teacher. I used to watch him stand in front of the room, and I just thought he had a great way of feeding the information to the players.”
When Spagnuolo was hired as Rams head coach in 2009, he hired Shurmur as his OC, and ironically could work for him now as his DC, even after interviewing for the head-coach position for a second time.
This is what Keenum told me about Shurmur in Sunday’s Q & A:
“He’s a great relationship guy. He’s an excellent communicator and it shows in his installation meetings and making sure everyone is on the same page. He trusts his players to do the right thing and we know he trusts us. That does a lot for your confidence.”
Asked why he thinks Shurmur is ready to be a head coach, Keenum said: “I think Pat does a great job of delegating to his other coaches. He trusts the opinions of the assistants and is open to suggestions. He’s willing to look at different solutions to a problem and he is willing to be flexible when it’s needed. I trust his decision-making because he’s smart and I know he has put in the work.”
None of it means Shurmur, 9-23 with the Browns, will be The Next Tom Coughlin. There are no guarantees with Patricia or McDaniels either.
Shurmur was tight ends coach at the start of the Andy Reid Era in Philadelphia, spent 10 years under Reid in a variety of roles, and was interviewed by the Eagles for the job that went to Doug Pederson. He replaced Chip Kelly as interim head coach at the end of the 2015 season. So he knows the division. Mike Holmgren hired him as Browns coach.
Shurmur won’t win the press conference, but fixing the Giants offense is more important. There were clock management issues and play-calling blunders in Cleveland — he once called a timeout before punting on fourthand-1 from the Colts 41-yard line with 6:38 left and was later forced to go for it on fourth-and-6. He didn’t hire an offensive coordinator and called plays as a rookie head coach. His quarterbacks were pups, Colt McCoy and Brandon Weeden. Good luck running your version of the West Coast offense with them.
Shurmur is a high-character person who was an honors student at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Mich., earned a masters de- gree in finance at Michigan State and left a sales job at IBM to pursue his football dream.
Can he command a room of Odell Beckham Jr. and 50-plus men? Can he be a leader? Can he make it uncomfortable to lose again? Can he restore order? Can he restore pride? No guarantees. But no guarantees with Patricia or McDaniels or Panthers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks either.
Gettleman and owners John Mara and Steve Tisch need the courage of their convictions. This is no time for indecision. Shurmur doesn’t check every box. None of the candidates do. He checks enough of them. Pull the trigger if you think he’s the right guy. And pull it before you have no shot at him at all.
Go get your man.