Flowers’ absence not deal breaker
The Giants are not dumping Ereck Flowers. Not yet, anyway. Of course they are not happy Flowers has chosen to accent the “voluntary’’ description of the offseason workouts and last week’s three-day minicamp by staying away from the team facility. But that irritation will not yet lead to an immediate parting of ways with the highly disappointing 2015 first-round pick, The Post has learned.
They will play this situation out and see what develops. If Flowers remains a no-show and does not report to the mandatory veteran camp June 12-14, that could lead to a discussion about possibly sending him away, although the desire is to get him to training camp and see him compete on the field. The Giants, after signing Nate Solder, informed Flowers he was no longer the starting left tackle and he would be competing for the starting right tackle job.
New Giants head coach Pat Shurmur essentially confirmed t hi s wait-and-see approach Monday morning on WFAN.
“This is a diff icult time to talk about those kinds of things because it’s voluntary, I get that,’’ Shurmur said. “There’s enough on tape — things didn’t go very well last year for the Giants, but he played through the year and there’s enough on tape for me to see there’s talent there. So whenever he decides to come in, we’re looking forward to working with him. Hey, that’s just what it is.’’
The Giants listened to a few trade calls during the NFL draft but got no substantive offers. If they landed a top-notch offensive tackle prospect, perhaps Flowers would have been jettisoned. That was not the case, although they did use their second-round pick to get their second highestrated guard, Will Hernandez. That selection, 34th overall, is the exact spot the Giants drafted Chris Snee in 2004. Snee was a starter from Day 1 and the Giants expect the same from Hernandez, a bruiser from Texas - El Paso.
“We’re gonna work him in and see where everything takes him,’’ Shurmur said. “We drafted him with the idea he’s gonna be a starter there, we’ll just see how long it takes him. You got to come in and earn it.’’
The offensive line, so battered and beleaguered in 2017, is almost totally revamped. Solder was signed to start at left tackle. Patrick Omameh was signed to start, most likely at left guard — where he started 13 games last season for the Jaguars. Hernandez will initially work at both guard spots and will land in one of them — for now it looks like right guard. Brett Jones returns to play center. The coaching staff wanted to see Flowers compete and win the right tackle job. Now, they cannot be sure about that. Second-year Chad Wheeler, undrafted out of USC, is a possible fallback option.
“We like some of the moves we made,’’ Shurmur said. “There’s three new pieces to the offensive line, which is huge. We also have some guys that were here a year ago that we’re excited to be working with. And so major changes there, for the better, we feel.’’