SUMMER SCHOOLING

Giants backup quarterback intent on studying through offseason

Every day, Davis Webb assembled his list of questions. There were questions specific to Eli Manning, which makes sense, as Webb wants, one day, what Manning has possessed for the past 12 years. There were questions specially crafted for Geno Smith and a separate grouping for Josh Johnson. There was an enumerated list for Mike Sullivan, the offensive coordinator, and another for Frank Cignetti Jr., the quarterbacks coach. If a measure of a player is revealed in the lists he makes and questions he asks, Webb, a third-round draft pick, surely is next in line to hold the keys to the Giants’ offense. “I’m very thankful and blessed to have that kind of room around me,’’ Webb said recently. “Some guys don’t have that.’’ As much as possible since arriving in the spring, Webb has tried not to wear out Manning, realizing a 36-year old veteran has better things to do than to babysit an eager rookie. “He’s been very helpful,’’ Webb said. “Some guys you just don’t know, when veterans and rookies come around. “First of all, I think it’s a lot of fun just to sit in meetings with him. I have a ton of questions. Eli and I have good conversations off the field, but I try to keep it football-related.’’ Webb came to the Giants as advertised, as those who know him best sing his praises when it comes to work ethic, attention to detail and a burning desire to know all there is to know. Webb, 22, is a project. He is not in the Giants’ on-field plans in 2017, and possibly not until after Manning’s contract expires after the 2019 season. If ever a player does not need to display urgency, it is Webb, yet he cannot help himself.

“You can’t get laid back, you can’t relax, and he doesn’t seem to be the type of guy that is going to relax,’’ coach Ben McAdoo said.

There is no concern about relaxation infiltrating Webb’s persona. He took in everything he could during OTAs and the three-day minicamp. As the Giants went their separate ways last week for a hiatus until July 27, Webb looked ahead and saw no time to waste.

For a few days, he will head to Odessa, Texas, to help out at a football camp run by Rams receiver Bradley Marquez, Webb’s former college roommate at Texas Tech. Other than that, Webb plans to hunker down in his new apartment in New Jersey. His Texas-based family will visit around the Fourth of July. Mostly, the next six weeks will be much work and little play for Webb.

“This month’s huge,’’ he said. “I plan on studying that script and the playbook just about every day. This is important to me. This month’s a good time to kind of get away. But for me, I’m in no situation where I can do that. I can take a couple of days off here and there, but I don’t really plan on doing that.

“I don’t really have a family of my own or anything like that. For me, the first 10 OTAs I was thinking a bunch. This is brand new. I think the last three days in minicamp I did a better job. I have a long way to go.’’

Webb appears to have what it takes: the size, arm, temperament and smarts. What he lacks is any experience operating an NFL offense. His time at Texas Tech then California was spent running a fast-paced spread attack. Quarterbacks in the spread receive plays signaled in from the sideline and rarely make sophisticated adjustments at the line of scrimmage. Webb never even had been in a huddle before taking the practice field with the Giants. The requisite, and quite basic, footwork and eye placement needed to run an NFL offense were not asked of Webb in the spread.

“He’d come from a program that concentrated on certain aspects of the game,” former NFL quarterback Jim Zorn said on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

Webb knew what he did not know, and this past winter, he hired Zorn to teach him the finer points of NFL quarterbacking, lessons that helped fuel Webb’s impressive showing at the Senior Bowl last January.

“Davis had never called a play even on the line of scrimmage,” Zorn said. “He might have audibled or said a word here and there. But to call a formation, a motion, a shift, the play, the protection, the snap count and then remember that count when you’re walking up to the line of scrimmage — that is terror for young QBs.”

The magnitude of this adjustment cannot be overstated. The Air Raid offenses he ran were frenetically uptempo — Webb could take as many as 150 reps in a single practice. In his first sessions with the Giants, Webb had to share the load with three other quarterbacks. He had to learn to learn despite getting only about 20 reps during practice.

“Here it’s a little slowed down, you’re in the huddle, you’ve got a 15-20 word play to spit out in the huddle, looking your teammates in the eye and they go out and execute it,’’ Webb said. “Sometimes I feel I’m going too fast, going through my reads a little too quick instead of slowing down.’’

Webb looked noticeably more comfortable in the minicamp than he did during the OTAs. He said he sensed the game was slowing down a bit for him.

“I’m a perfectionist, so I’m very hard on myself, very critical,’’ Webb said. “I can get better and there’s a lot of things I need to improve on.’’

Thus, he will continue to work during his first NFL break.