Coach Pat Shurmur addresses wide variety of topics

The New York Giants on Tuesday began their voluntary veteran mini-camp, the first time new coach Pat Shurmur gets his team on the field. Shurmur spoke Tuesday about several things — Ereck Flowers, Odell Beckham Jr. and Davis Webb among them.

Here are some takeaways.

What does Shurmur hope to accomplish in this mini-camp?

“I think the big thing for us is our game is very simple – it’s about the ball, it’s about negotiating the ground and it’s really about man whipping man. Now this time of year there is not any contact so to speak, so that third part you can’t work on very much. But, we can work on throwing and catching; the defense can work on defending and trying to strip. We can work on the coordination of running plays and defending plays and the kicking and the punting and all of that. So those are the things we are trying to do. We’ve given the guys two weeks of meetings and we’ve put together a mini camp, there’s not a whole lot of scheme, but there is enough here to challenge them mentally and then hopefully by the end of these three days we’ll walk away and know a lot more about our players as we move forward.”

This is not a tryout for quarterback Davis Webb

“No, I think for him there has been a lot that has been made of this is like his tryout. Well, I don’t think so. I think he’s just like every other player out here. They’re trying to take what we give them and then go out here and execute and try to execute at a high level and I don’t think there needs to be any anxiety on his part – get trained up, come on out here, let it rip and mistakes happen in practice and you learn from them. I think that’s why you practice, so I think you have to be careful about making a final evaluation on a guy in a three-day period here. He just needs to come out here and get as good as he can be.”

Shurmur did, though, give a hint regarding some of what he is hoping to see.

“He needs to be able to execute the offense, he needs to be able to drop back, complete the ball. And then there’s just that feeling you get by watching a quarterback move the offense. Now, there’s not going to be a lot of that type of competitive stuff going on, but you can tell by the way a guy runs a huddle, the way he gets the offense lined up, the way he drops back and throws, the way he hands the ball off. Just all the things that a quarterback would do. And I think this is hopefully the first of many days of him developing within our system.”

Little to say about Ereck Flowers

“He’s not here, so there’s not really much to say. That’s my feelings. ... He’s not here. We understand that this is a program that is voluntary. I tend to believe it is very necessary, but he’s not here. So, when he is here, we will start to talk about him.”

Odell is in the building

“Yeah, he’s here and he’s been here. He’s going through his rehab to get fully cleared, so he was able to be involved in the walk through, but as we get going here competitive full speed, he won’t be able to participate this afternoon.”

Shurmur added that he is “absolutely.” planning on Beckham being part of the team in 2018.

“He’s an excellent player, he’s part of our team and he’s a very valued member of our team. Everybody that’s out here, I’m planning on them being here.”

What about draft prep?

“Yeah, there’s a draft, huh? Well, there’s been a lot of work done behind the scenes and certainly many, many hours putting the board together. It’s been a great experience for me, working with [General Manager] Dave [Gettleman] and [Assistant General Manager] Kevin [Abrams] and all of the scouts and really all of the player evaluation people. Whether you’re on the college end or the pro end, there’s a lot to the process. And being a part of it, I’ve been really impressed with how well they all work together. So, that’s been going on for a very long time and it intensifies as you get towards the draft. We’ve done a lot of work through, really, last night. There’s work to be done today when we get off the field and really, you work right up until when you make those picks. So, we’ll just work around playing football.”