WR ready to Shep up
There was so much bad in the Giants’ 3-13 season last fall that it was even easier for the good to stand out. And Sterling Shepard’s 11-catch, 142-yard effort in a Week 10 loss in San Francisco was better than good, including 15-yard and 26-yard completions lined up as an outside receiver in a two-receiver set, proving he cannot be pigeon-holed as just an undersized slot wideout.
Still, here came the questions Tuesday at Giants OTAs about whether Shepard can handle playing more of an outside role in a Pat Shurmur offense that shows fewer threeWR sets than Ben McAdoo’s. And Shepard was ready to be told he was still just an undersized, interior slot receiver — where he’s done most of his NFL damage so far.
“That’s been that way since college,” Shepard said. “I feel like I’ve prov- en that I can play outside and just try to handle my business. I know that I can play outside and we will soon see.”
The truth is, though, the Giants receiving corps will be out for some redemption this fall, just like the rest of the team.
For while Eli Manning played poorly most of last season at quarterback, the analytics site Pro Football Focus frequently cites that Manning also had the most dropped passes of any NFL quarterback in 2017 with 43 total.
PFF credited rookie tight end Evan Engram with a team-high 11 drops, followed by Odell Beckham (an alarming six drops in just four games), Orleans Darkwa (five), Wayne Gallman (four), Shepard and Roger Lewis (three apiece) and a host of others behind.
Harping on the drops isn’t exactly fair especially in the case of Engram, who as a rookie led the Giants in catches (64) and receiving touchdowns (six), and finished a close second with 722 receiving yards behind Shepard’s 731. On the scale of miscues that got McAdoo fired, dropped passes are very far down the list.
Still, even Engram admitted Tuesday that just in this spring’s practices he has sensed how he’ll be able to improve from last year, when the game at times was going “so fast” for the 2017 first-round pick.
“The game has slowed down a lot,” Engram said. “Last year, I kind of (had my) head was on a swivel a lot, the game was so fast and I wasn’t used to it. But just having a year under my belt and kind of getting thrown into some tough situations last year definitely helps slow the game down and allowed me to kind of focus … and enhance my talents to be a better player.”
Saquon Barkley was drafted No. 2 overall in large part to give the Giants a dynamic pass catcher out of the backfield. So far, so good.
“He hasn’t disappointed us one bit,” Shurmur said Tuesday. “He has been out there running the ball well and is catching it well.”
Add a healthy Beckham back into the fold and there is no reason not to expect a dramatic offensive improvement.
A typical offensive set should feature Beckham and Shepard on the outsides, tight ends Engram and Rhett Ellison, and Barkley in the backfield behind a retooled offensive line with Manning calling the shots. Receivers Hunter Sharp and Cody Latimer are two depth options along with Lewis.
That shifts the pressure right back to Manning, who will be tasked with playing much better than he did in 2017, spreading the wealth among his new high-end weapons, and maximizing the system Shurmur puts in place. hether Manning, 37, can play well enough to tap all of that potential could be the biggest question of all. But as for how the quarterback divvies up his targets, Shepard said that’s hardly a primary concern.
“As long as we’re winning games, I don’t really care how it comes together,” Shepard said. “I just don’t want to have another season like last year. So whoever gets the ball, I know that you can trust in them to make big plays. I’m happy about that.”
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