Shurmur's new 'O' could lead to profits in summer
Offense will be the obvious point of emphasis this month as the Giants transition to new head coach Pat Shurmur. The G-men begin their 2018 exhibition slate Thursday at home against the Browns.
Last season, Shurmur was the offensive coordinator for the Vikings. This sets up an almost perfect parallel to a discussion we had last week regarding the Bears. Another team with a horrible offense in 2017 has hired somebody else’s successful offensive coordinator to fix things in 2018. Let’s run the same stats we used in that study:
Very important for bettors to realize that turnover avoidance is a top priority for the modern offense. Gone are the days when it was OK to sling the ball downfield figuring turnovers would take care of themselves. The Vikings were third best in the NFL last season at avoiding giveaways (behind only the Chiefs and Patriots). In essence, Shurmur’s offense was barely playoff caliber at moving the ball … but was championship caliber at protecting it.
There was a lot wrong with the Giants’ offense last season beyond pure philosophy. But, you can see that Shurmur’s approach is likely to generate meaningful improvement. More yards. A lot more points. Fewer turnovers if strategies play to Eli Manning’s strengths.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the Giants will explode out of the gate Thursday. Chicago will emphasize offense in 2018, but scored only 10 points until the final minutes of the Hall of Fame Game. Projected regular-season starter Mitchell Trubisky didn’t even play.
Given how conservative NFL coaches are with starting QBs in August, the key Giants player to watch Thursday should be backup Davis Webb. If he thrives in the new system, his volume of snaps could generate point-spread covers throughout the month.