New coach says he has had initial conversation with Beckham

At his introductory press conference on Friday, New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur said that having a conversation with star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was on his to-do list. On ESPN Radio’s ‘Golic & Wingo’ show on Monday morning, Shurmur said that initial chat has now taken place.

On Friday, Shurmur said of Beckham that “I need to get to know him. I need to get to know what makes him tick, and I get to ‑‑ I need to talk to him about what it is that we’re looking for for a guy that plays for the New York Giants.”

Coaches and players cannot talk Xs and Os during the offseason, so the Shurmur-Beckham chat was really just an introduction.

“He sounds inspired to get ready to have a really good year, so I’m looking forward to that.”

“We’ve gotta make some changes”

Much of what Shurmur talked about Monday he also covered in Friday’s press conference. He did admit Monday that changes need to be made.

“Took over a 3-13 team. We’ve gotta make some changes. We’ve gotta do a lot of work here,” he said.

On Friday Shurmur talked about “zero tolerance” for lack of effort or respect.

“There’s such pride and there’s such history here. I think it’s very, very important that we do what’s right. The word culture is thrown around a lot. I think it really just comes down to doing what’s right and competing, giving effort and playing the game with respect,” Shurmur told Golic & Wingo.

“We’ve really just got to set the standards and the guidelines. It’s more than just saying follow the rules. It needs to be relationship-driven, we’ve gotta talk about it and they’ve got to understand not only what we think is right but then help them understand why it’s important so they believe in it as well.”

Righting a locker room that saw three players suspended, two anonymously complain to the media and a public spat between Eli Apple and Landon Collins, among other things, is at the top of Shurmur’s priority list.

“We bring in the right players, some of that handles itself.” he said.

“Leadership is really just having the courage to do what’s right. From what I’ve heard we’ve got a lot of those guys down there.”