California QBs impressed by ‘brilliant mind’
INDIANAPOLIS — The Giants did not hire Pat Shurmur because of his background with quarterbacks, but those notations on his résumé certainly are beneficial, especially at a time like this, with his team holding the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft and studying all the top quarterback prospects.
Those prospects all met or were reacquainted with Shurmur this week and came away impressed. “Pat Shurmur’s such a brilliant mind,’’ Josh Allen of Wyoming, who met with the Giants on Friday night, told The Post on Saturday at a Gatorade event to play the virtual reality game “Beat The Blitz’’ at the NFL Scouting Combine. “Just being able to talk with him and sit in there and understand that he does some great plays and know while he’s at the helm of a team he’s going to have great success there, in my opinion.’’
Allen previously met and spent time with Shurmur at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
Sam Darnold of USC and Josh Rosen of UCLA also met with the Giants’ brass at the combine.
“Pat Shurmer and then [offensive coordinator] Mike Shula and a bunch of other people were in there,’’ Darnold told The Post. “It was really fun and interactive. They brought up some film of me from this past me this past year.’’
Shula ran the quarterback drills Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium, giving him an on-fieldview of all the passers in action.
Darnold and Allen are both California kids — Darnold is from San Clemente in Orange County and Allen is from Firebaugh, about 40 miles west of Fresno — and neither has stepped foot in New York. If the Giants see fit to select one of them, it will be an adjustment — more so for Allen, who was raised on a farm and went to college at Wyoming, as opposed to Darnold, who played college ball in Los Angeles.
“I would assume it’s different than L.A., but in some regards it’s the same,’’ Darnold said. “I think it’s cool being able to grow up in a town that’s pretty blue collar, that’s San Clemente, then going to L.A. In New York I think I would continue to be myself, it’s just the environment around me that would change, that’s all.’’
Allen said the closest he has ever come to New York is this combine, and anyone with merely a passing familiarity with geography knows Indiana and New York are not bordering states. “Not very close at all,’’ Allen said.