New York Giants rookies are receiving a few extra days to familiarize themselves with training camp. So are their quarterbacks, including Eli Manning.
It doesn’t matter that Manning began his 15th training camp when he took the field Monday, surrounded by rookies and select veterans. This is a new regime. There is a new way of doing business for the Giants with Pat Shurmur as head coach and Dave Gettleman as general manager.
This is another new experience for Manning to add to his long resume. He had never been asked to report earlier than the rest of his teammates.
Giants veterans are scheduled to report Wednesday.
“It’s a first for me, which I think will be good,” Manning said recently at a Gatorade Beat the Heat camp. “Looking forward to it. Obviously, with the new offense and the new terminology, kind of get that with the mind working the right way. Get all your calls down. And kind of get a little introduction to that again and get refreshed and everything. So looking forward to get in there and get a jump-start.”
This is the challenge that the Giants, and specifically their quarterbacks, face this season. They are learning new schemes. It’s a process, one that takes time and repetition. They're taking advantage of these few extra days.
It’s the third offensive system Manning will be learning in his professional career after playing for Tom Coughlin and Kevin Gilbride in a vertical attack for most of the first 10 years of his career before Ben McAdoo arrived with the West Coast offense. Shurmur’s offense is a mesh of systems (West Coast, spread, vertical) that was successful last year with quarterback Case Keenum in Minnesota.
No longer the coordinator there, he’s running his own show with the Giants. Shurmur wanted the rookies and all his quarterbacks -- Manning, Davis Webb, Kyle Lauletta and Alex Tanney -- at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center a few days early.
The Giants have workouts scheduled early this week for the first arrivals.
“It is a great way for the rookies to get a lot more reps. It is a good way for the quarterbacks to get going,” Shurmur said. “Those can be a very productive two days.”
Manning, 37, doesn’t mind the extra work. He has been a fixture at the facility for most of this offseason anyway. He was working out in New Jersey weeks after the season ended with his eye on preparing for his 15th year with the Giants, even though he wasn’t sure it would happen. It did when the Giants' new regime firmly committed to the two-time Super Bowl winner.
The early arrival isn’t the only thing that will be different for Manning this summer. Shurmur has joint practices scheduled with the Detroit Lions from Aug. 14-16. The Giants haven’t practiced with another team since 2015. They’ve done it only sporadically throughout Manning’s time with the Giants.
Shurmur’s first camp as coach will run from Monday -- when select veterans and rookies first reported -- until Aug. 11, when select veterans are scheduled to break camp. That is 20 days to work, bond and prepare for the upcoming season.
Manning is hopeful it leads to a return to the playoffs.
“Every year that is the goal. It doesn’t change,” he said. “Obviously it’s a matter of all the guys buying in, all the guys working hard during this time, working hard during training camp. We had great work this spring. All that makes a difference. That commitment for making this a great season from Day 1, when the training starts, is the difference. This way you go through the rough stretches that a season is going to have. You’re going to lose a game here or there; you’re going to go through a half where you’re not playing great football. It’s that belief that all the work you’ve done is going to make a difference. You’re going to find a way to win a football game. Win a tough game.
“So that belief that we are a good team and we can make things happen. I think all that work makes an impact. The teams that have been through a lot and work the hardest are truly committed to making things work out, find a way to win.”
For Manning and the quarterbacks, it started a few days earlier than for the rest of the veterans.