Ereck Flowers – © USA TODAY Sports
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NEW YORK GIANTS TO DUMP ERECK FLOWERS…
Multiple media sources reported on Monday that the New York Giants are going to cut right tackle Ereck Flowers unless they can trade him by 4:00PM on Tuesday. Head Coach Pat Shurmur did not deny the report when asked about it.
“That’s accurate,” said Shurmur. “If that’s the case, then if and when that happens, then certainly we’ll make a roster move… He was not out there today… I think it’s just kind of run its course. We appreciate Ereck’s efforts, and we just wish him the best. Sometimes a change of scenery is good for a person, and we’re just hopeful he can go out and continue to have a good career.”
Flowers was drafted in the 1st round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the Giants. In his first three seasons, he started 46 games at left tackle. The Giants moved him to right tackle this offseason. He started the first two games of the season there before being benched for Chad Wheeler.
NEW YORK GIANTS INJURY REPORT…
Tight end Rhett Ellison (foot) and place kicker Aldrick Rosas (right quad) did not practice on Monday.
“A little bit of wear and tear from the game yesterday – Rhett Ellison’s got a sore foot, and then Aldrick (Rosas), our kicker, has a sore quad,” said Head Coach Pat Shurmur. “We’re hopeful that he’ll be back, but I think it’s worthy of talking about.”
Tight end Evan Engram (knee), wide receiver Russell Shepard (neck), wide receiver Jawill Davis (shoulder), defensive end Josh Mauro (groin), and linebacker Olivier Vernon (ankle) were limited in practice.
“Evan Engram is coming back, it looks like he has a shot to make it this week, and we’re hopeful with (Vernon) as well,” said Shurmur.
MONDAY MEDIA SESSION WITH HEAD COACH PAT SHURMUR…
New York Giants Head Coach Pat Shurmur addressed the media on Monday to discuss the team’s 33-31 loss to the Carolina Panthers (the video is also available at Giants.com):
Opening Remarks: A little bit of wear and tear from the game yesterday – Rhett Ellison’s got a sore foot, and then Aldrick (Rosas), our kicker, has a sore quad. We’re hopeful that he’ll be back, but I think it’s worthy of talking about. Evan Engram is coming back, it looks like he has a shot to make it this week, and we’re hopeful with (Olivier Vernon) as well. Aside from that, there’s a little wear and tear. We went through our walk thru today and technically this is a Wednesday. When the plane landed yesterday, we moved onto Philadelphia, so we just had a walk-thru really. Today was Wednesday, tomorrow will function like a Thursday of game week, and then Wednesday will function like a Friday, and then the walk-thru on the day of the game will be like our mock game. That’s sort of how we go through our week here. We’ll run tomorrow, then we’ll walk or tempo through the other days and get ready to play Philly. We’re looking forward to it, a division game at home, and our guys are excited to get ready to play Philadelphia. I’ll take your questions.
Q: Since kicker is such an unusual spot and you only have one, do you have to bring in somebody for a workout just in case?
A: Yeah, we probably will make a roster move to bring somebody on the practice squad just in case.
Q: Short week is kind of tough, but with the loss yesterday, is everyone a little more anxious to get playing on Thursday?
A: Yeah, we all play this game. Everybody has a Thursday night game. For the most part we are pretty healthy, and so we’re looking forward to getting back at it. The key is to get their bodies back quickly, and put together a plan that works.
Q: Are you going to make a roster move with Ereck Flowers?
A: Possibly, yeah. Is there a report out there? Tell me what it is.
Q: He will be traded or released by tomorrow at 4 PM.
A: There you go. That’s accurate. If that’s the case, then if and when that happens, then certainly we’ll make a roster move.
Q: Is he still with the team right now?
A: Yeah, until that happens.
Q: He was out there today?
A: He was not out there today.
Q: What made now the right timing for that?
A: I think it’s just kind of run its course. We appreciate Ereck’s efforts, and we just wish him the best. Sometimes a change of scenery is good for a person, and we’re just hopeful he can go out and continue to have a good career.
Q: So nothing of how he reacted to his benching?
A: No. None of that.
Q: On not being particularly deep at the tackle position and getting rid of Flowers who has experience:
A: We’ve got a lot of new faces. I think we’ve got, you guys do the math, but I think we’ve got 30 or 35 new faces from last year’s team. A lot of new faces, I don’t think anybody has great depth this time of year, so we’ll try to add a tackle to the roster when that move does happen.
Q: Who is your swing tackle right now?
A: We’ll have to make a move and we’ll figure that out, but we’ve got guys in there that have played tackle. We’ve got Spencer (Pulley) obviously that’s played tackle, we’ve also got (John) Greco who’s played a little bit of tackle, so we’ll just move guys around. That’s the way it works.
Q: Chad (Wheeler) is ok? He wasn’t on the injury report but he left the game at some point.
A: He’s fine, he was just dealing with a finger.
Q: What happened to Cody Latimer?
A: He’s still dealing with a sore knee. We sort of used him in a back up role if we needed him yesterday. The guys that filled in for him did a nice job.
Q: You said when the flight landed you moved on to the Eagles, which you would have done win or lose I’m sure with a Thursday Night game. But because of the nature of that loss, I don’t think anybody every wants to play a Thursday Night game, but is this good to have right away?
A: I don’t know. Again, all the coaches and the players, we all have our iPads, we all looked at the film, we went through it on the plane ride, made the corrections necessary, and then when we landed we moved on. We’re sort of creatures of habit and our week this week is short and compressed, so you move on win, lose, or draw.
Q: Obviously it was an emotional game, but they showed video of Sterling (Shepard) on the side getting upset, B.W. Webb got a penalty – How do you handle that when guys have emotions like that?
A: Each situation – we need to all keep our composure, and when that happens it is addressed immediately. I was not aware of the Sterling, I found out about it later, so as soon as I found out, I communicated with him and there was good dialogue between player and coach.
Q: You said Saquon (Barkley) was fine yesterday, but everything ok?
A: Yeah, he’s fine. He’s healthy and ready to go.
Q: How do you think your team is doing mentally – you’re 1-4, that was a tough loss – what do you see from them?
A: I love my team. I love our team. I think our guys are competitive, they fight, and I think our improvement was on display yesterday. There’s no moral victories, so we’ve got to improve this much more. We’ve got to improve 63 yards more and get that victory. That’s what it is. I watched a bunch of guys battle from the first play to the last, I watched a bunch of guys make more plays on both sides of the ball, I watched when we didn’t make it on fourth down our defense go in and stop them, I watched a couple of turnovers on their part, I watched the offense score points, I watched contributions in good ways, but not to the point where we won the game. So, we just keep trying to get in this case, 63 yards better.
Q: The nature of the division, after tonight there might not be any team with a winning record, does that help a team that’s 1-4?
A: The key is to win your division and then give yourselves a chance to compete, and then go on from there. That’s what we’re battling for. That’s why I think we as coaches and players understand that there’s – I think the question was asked last week – there’s no panic, it’s urgency to win every week, and that’s what we’re fighting to do. Along the way, every team goes through stuff. We’re in it, so we’ve just got to go win a game.
Q: The dominant conversation we had last week was about downfield throws. There were a lot more of them this week. Is that because they played you differently, you changed how you called the game?
A: They played us differently. I would say I probably made as many calls to get the ball downfield the week before but we faced different coverage. I thought Eli (Manning) did a good job of getting the ball down the field, our guys did a good job of executing and catching it. Forget the downfield throws. We scored 31 points, that’s the message. So whether you walk it across, you crawl it across, you roll it across, you throw it across – give me something else – you swim it across, it doesn’t matter. Getting it across the end zone is what matters, and that’s important.
Q: It just seemed like there was a correlation between a lot of the downfield throws set up a lot of the plays.
A: Maybe so. That would be for fun for everybody to talk about and write about, but the reality is we found a way to score 31 points. We needed to score three more though.
Q: Saquon (Berkley) mentioned you had called that pass play before that Odell (Beckham) threw?
A: I’ve called it in my past, but not as a Giant.
Q: What goes into the thought process, you have it in the play book, when to pull the trigger on it?
A: Just kind of get a feel for when the time is right, and I felt like the time was right. We go into games with more plays than we call, and you put them on the front burner, the back burner, there’s plays you’d like to call sometimes, you don’t get the right situation for it, so you just keep working and practicing it, and then it’s there when you need it.
Q: How well does he do in practice with that completion?
A: I don’t think it’s ever been incomplete in practice. He’s got a nice arm. Saquon can catch the ball, so it worked out well. I thought the rest of the guys executed it well as, well. There was a lot of deception to it, and to our credit, that was one we executed well.
Q: What prompted putting B.J. Goodson in for those final couple series for (Ray-Ray) Armstrong?
A: I thought they all battled. What played into it? It was just substation. There was nothing to it.
THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts and video clips of the media sessions with the following players are available in The Corner Forum and at Giants.com:
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The players practice on Tuesday in preparation for Thursday’s home game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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