Pat Shurmur On Eli Manning’s Status
Five months ago, Eli Manning accepted a benching that ended his historic start streak and triggered a massive shakeup within the organization. But even after getting his job back a week later, the 14-year veteran was still viewed as either a trade candidate or a lame duck, given the Giants’ rare draft real estate.
But Big Blue’s new power structure immediately said Manning wasn’t going anywhere, and their actions on draft weekend leave no clear succession plan from a 37-year-old quarterback who is coming off one of his worst seasons. Pat Shurmur reiterated the Giants believe in their starter, viewing Saquon Barkley‘s talent as too difficult to pass up despite Albert Breer of SI.com reporting the team did like Sam Darnold to an extent.
“I don’t know what [taking Barkley] means for Eli,” Shurmur said, via Breer. “What it means for us organizationally is we picked the guy we thought was the best player in the draft. I believe in Eli. What I know is that Eli is going to be the very best Eli he can be, and we believe in him.”
Shurmur was reported to have preferred Josh Allen in a Giants war room that reportedly did not produce a definitive answer on which of the 2018 draft class’ top passing prospects was the best. That the team devoted its offseason to adding the draft’s top non-quarterback prospect and three new offensive linemen figures to help paint a better picture of where Manning’s at than what transpired last season leading an injury-ravaged Giants offense.
But Shurmur remains confident the Manning he studied on film from a shootout loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Eagles in December is one on which the franchise can still rely.
“It came down to the last score,” Shurmur said, via Breer, of a game that saw Manning throw for 434 yards and three touchdowns despite being without Odell Beckham Jr. “It’s not one thing, it’s Eli over the course of time. And it’s gotten solidified now getting a chance to work with him. … [on film] I saw a guy that could still throw the ball. I could tell he was still operating the offense pretty well. I saw that he had command of the offense, and I saw all the elements you see when things don’t go well.
“There were drops, missed blocks. I think everyone had their mistakes. Things tend to get magnified. But just as a player, you could see he could still drop back and throw the ball as well as anybody.”
New York has 2017 third-rounder Davis Webb and rookie fourth-round pick Kyle Lauletta behind Manning, but despite numerous calls for the Giants to draft a successor with their first top-five pick in 14 years, the team will attempt to groom the lesser-regarded prospects behind Manning for the time being. Two years remain on the starter’s contract.
“No, I didn’t see the age,” Shurmur said of watching the 15th-year quarterback on film. “There’s no substitute for experience and he’s got it. So no, the age doesn’t bother me.”
Giants Waive RB Paul Perkins
The Giants are moving on from Paul Perkins. The running back was waived on Thursday morning with a non-football injury designation, according to a press release from the team. 
[RELATED: Giants Free Agent RB Orleans Darkwa Has Surgery]
Perkins suffered a pectoral injury prior to the start of this year’s offseason conditioning program and underwent surgery. Apparently, the Giants did not want to wait to check on Perkins’ status after his recovery.
Perkins was a fifth-round pick of the Giants’ old regime in 2016. The UCLA product went on to appear in 25 games but averaged just 3.6 yards per carry on 153 attempts.
Two years ago, some believed that Perkins would emerge as the leading ball carrier in the Giants’ backfield. That never came to pass as Rashad Jennings led the way in 2016, albeit with subpar results, and Orleans Darkwa served as the No. 1 RB last year. This year, the Giants have a new look backfield with rookie Saquon Barkley as the starter and veteran Jonathan Stewart in support.
Further down the depth chart, 2017 fourth-round pick Wayne Gallman, Terrell Watson, and Jalen Simmons are among those fighting for roster spots.
Giants Owner John Mara On OBJ Talks
The Giants remain hopeful that they will hammer out a new contract with Odell Beckham Jr., but co-owner John Mara says he won’t rush things.
Beckham has one more year to go on his rookie deal at a value of $8.5MM. After that, the Giants can realistically control Beckham via the franchise tag through 2020. Still, OBJ has been vocal about his desire for a new deal and it’s not a given that he’ll play ball if he’s franchised next year.
Free Agent Orleans Darkwa Has Surgery
Giants free agent running back Orleans Darkwa had minor surgery on Wednesday morning to remove the plate in his leg he had inserted last offseason, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. X-rays confirmed Darkwa’s initial fractured has healed in full, so he is now able to move forward without the plate that had been limiting his explosiveness. Darkwa should be good to go in four weeks, Rapoport hears. 
Darkwa had several offers in free agency, per Rapoport (on Twitter), but did not find any deals to his liking. Apparently, those clubs are encouraged by his decision to have the plate taken out. Darkwa’s market could ramp up in the next few weeks, particularly since the signing of unrestricted free agents no longer count against the 2019 compensatory draft pick formula at this stage of the offseason.
Darkwa hasn’t drawn a ton of interest in free agency, though he did visit the Patriots in April. The Giants reportedly had some level of interest in re-signing him, but they’ve since drafted Penn State standout Saquon Barkley with the No. 2 overall pick and signed veteran Jonathan Stewart . The crosstown Jets were also eyeing Darkwa at one point, but signed Isaiah Crowell and Thomas Rawls.
Darkwa had the best year of his NFL career in 2017 with career-highs in starts (11), rushes (171), yards (751), and touchdowns (five). The 26-year-old managed 4.4 yards per carry, and also added 19 receptions for 116 yards in the passing game. Overall, Darkwa was roughly a league-average running back, as he finished 22nd among 45 qualifiers in DVOA, Football Outsiders’ efficiency metric.
Victor Cruz Hopes To Continue Playing
We haven’t heard Victor Cruz‘s name much in recent months, but that doesn’t mean that he’s off of the NFL’s radar. At least, the wide receiver hopes that’s not the case. This week, Cruz said that he wants to continue playing football. 
“I just love the game. I think I can still play,” Cruz said. “I don’t want to exhaust all of that before I fall off.”
Cruz, 32 in November, inked a one-year, $2MM deal with the Bears last offseason. The deal included a a $500K signing bonus, but that guarantee didn’t stop the Bears from cutting him just before the start of the season. Cruz later lobbied the Giants to re-sign him after they lost Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall, Dwayne Harris, and Sterling Shepard to injury, but the G-Men never reciprocated interest in a reunion.
This offseason, things have been largely quiet, though Cruz says there was some interest from teams before the NFL draft. In the last two weeks, the veteran says he hasn’t heard from teams with serious interest. Cruz says that he will retire if he doesn’t have an offer from a team by a certain date this summer, though he did not disclose the exact self-imposed cutoff point.
“Once that deadline comes, if nothing has happened, I’ll hang them up,” he said. “Probably around training camp time and then we’ll go from there.”
Cruz was successful during his run with the G-Men as he averaged 80 receptions 1,209 yards, and eight touchdowns per season from 2011-13. Since that time, however, injuries have robbed Cruz of his explosiveness. He has failed to top 40 receptions or 600 yards over the past four years.
Kurt Warner Considered NFL Comeback
Plenty of NFL players have retired and un-retired, but Kurt Warner considered doing something unprecedented. The Hall of Fame quarterback pondered a return for this season as he nears his 47th birthday (video link via Patrick Daugherty of NBC Sports). 
“I was actually ready to, for this coming season, I actually talked to a coach and my wife said, ‘Go for it, I think it would be great,‘” Warner said during a St. Louis Cardinals telecast. “So I actually talked to a coach about possibly doing it if they needed someone, but then they went out and signed somebody. I don’t think they thought I was serious. So I think we’re completely done now.”
Warner, a former Super Bowl champion and MVP, last took the field in the 2009 season with the Cardinals. He left the game on a high note after leading Arizona to a victory in the opening round of the playoffs, but he has also been out of action for nearly a decade. It’s not clear if any team would have given real consideration to signing Warner, but it sounds like he was fairly serious about the idea on his end.
Running back Herschel Walker famously claimed that he could still play in the NFL when he was in his 50s. He never did make his way back to the gridiron, but he did compete as a professional mixed martial artist in the now defunct Strikeforce promotion.
It’s unlikely that Warner would have garnered real consideration for his planned return, but it’s a fun what-if scenario to ponder.
Minor NFL Transactions: 5/7/18
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Baltimore Ravens
- Signed: WR Janarion Grant, DE Myles Humphrey
- Waived: FB Ricky Ortiz, LB Mason McKenrick
Kansas City Chiefs
- Signed: C Tejan Koroma
Minnesota Vikings
- Signed: WR Chad Beebe, CB Craig James, FB Johnny Stanton, LB Brett Taylor
- Waived: LS Nick Dooley, WR Armanti Foreman, DT Caushaud Lyons, FB Kamryn Pettway
New York Giants
- Waived: S Ryan Murphy, G Damien Mama, WR Canaan Severin, RB Terrell Watson, P Austin Rehkow
New York Jets
- Signed: K Taylor Bertolet
- Waived: CB Bryson Keeton
Oakland Raiders
- Signed: TE Paul Butler, FB Henry Poggi, RB Chris Warren
- Waived: RB Elijah Hood, DL Joby Saint Fleur, FB Nick Sharga
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: OT Nick Callender, C Marcus Henry, S Tevon Mutcherson, WR Damore’ea Stringfellow, OT Avery Young
- Waived: LB Paul Dawson, LB Jason Hall, C Brad Lundblade, WR Ka’Raun White, WR Taj Williams
Brandon Beane On Bills’ First-Round Trades
Brandon Beane enjoyed a complicated night on his first draft as Bills GM. And he detailed the extensive process in an expansive piece by Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News.
The Bills were ready to give the Broncos an extra first- and second-round pick, Beane confirms of Mike Klis of 9News’ report that emerged on draft weekend. Denver and Buffalo’s GMs agreed to the swap at around 7pm CT on draft night — one that would have sent Buffalo’s Nos. 12 and 22 picks and one of its second-rounders to Denver in exchange for the No. 5 overall choice and a third-round pick — but John Elway told Beane the deal would be off if a certain player was still on the board.
Beane wondered if that player was Denzel Ward, but when a text message came alerting Beane that Bradley Chubb might fall past the Browns at No. 4, he began to worry about his plans to acquire Josh Allen.
“I was really nervous when Cleveland got on the clock. You’ve got your channels where you’re getting information outside of the draft room. Somebody told me, it’s down to Ward or Chubb,” Beane said, via Skurski. “Earlier in the day, people felt like they were probably going to go Chubb. That was my first four. I did say it was going to be Chubb, and we’ll go to Denver. I was wrong. Not until (the Browns) were on the clock did I get the text from somebody that said, ‘Hey, Ward may go here.’ I said (expletive).”
“I was a little bummed when Elway told me, ‘Hey, this is our guy.’ I felt like what I had to offer John was better than anybody else could offer. I felt like I was bidding against myself, basically.”
Beane became leery of the Dolphins and Cardinals moving up to No. 7 for Allen, whom Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller reported was their No. 1-rated quarterback, but he would no longer be willing to part with the No. 22 pick like he was in talks with the Broncos at No. 5. And he wasn’t willing to trade the Bills’ 2019 first-rounder.
“(Assistant GM) Joe (Schoen) would say, ‘(the Buccaneers) want this and this,’ and it included 22, and I said no,” Beane said. “It was just too much. I would have done 22 at five. I wasn’t doing it there. Because I knew nobody could be offering that. … That was the biggest obstacle I faced during the whole thing. Everybody wanted next year’s one leading up to the draft, and I wasn’t doing it.”
Beane and Schoen then approached the 49ers at No. 9, but John Lynch was zeroed in on Mike McGlinchey. However, Jason Licht called Beane back and said he would accept the offer of both of Buffalo’s second-round picks. The Bills collected a seventh-rounder from the Bucs as well.
“He said, ‘I’ll do it for the twos, but we’ve got to do it right now,’ ” Beane told Skurski. “I said alright, I need another pick, though. I need a player. I don’t care what it is, just give me your last pick, whatever it is. He said, ‘Alright, done.
“(The Broncos taking Chubb) was a blessing in disguise. I was tight after Denver’s pick. I was trying not to show it to the room, but I was tight. Joe and I, we were very tight.”
In passing on the chance to acquire additional first- and second-round picks, the Broncos are betting big on Chubb. Beane said he also spoke with the Giants and Browns about the Nos. 2 and 4 picks, and Skurski reports the only trade Beane would have made pre-draft was with the Giants at No. 2.
Skurski adds the Bills finalized their quarterback hierarchy following their April 13 Sam Darnold workout. Miller reported this week Darnold was the Bills’ top-rated quarterback, so it would have made sense for a trade to the second slot. Although, Darnold was still connected to the Browns at No. 1 at that point. The Bills were rumored to be targeting a top-five pick for weeks prior to the draft, but the Giants and Browns wanted more than Beane was willing to offer, per Skurski.
As for the Bills’ second Round 1 trade, Beane contacted the Packers at No. 14 and Raiders at No. 15. Green Bay ended up accepting a New Orleans offer that did include a 2019 first, and Oakland did not want to trade down again, per Skurski. Edmunds was the target because of the Bills’ situation at linebacker, Beane said, and the Ravens quickly agreed to a deal at No. 16.
“(Edmunds) was sticking out on our board, and it’s a need,” Beane said. “If a guy is sticking out on our board, and it’s really not a need, you might not do it. But with the hole we had there, and where he was on our board, it was a no-brainer. Even if we could have got to 14, we would have done it.”
Flowers Upset About Giants’ Solder Signing?
Ereck Flowers remains in south Florida training independently from the Giants, and teammate Landon Collins didn’t mince words when asked why the fourth-year tackle wasn’t with the team.
“He’s just unhappy that they picked up [Nate Solder],” Collins said during an appearance on WFAN (via SNY.tv). “That’s it.”
The Giants signed Solder to a landmark deal and gave him Flowers’ position, subsequently shuttling the disappointing former top-10 pick to right tackle. While right tackle was where the Giants drafted Flowers to play initially, he’s started three straight seasons on the left side. Only, the last one ended acrimoniously. And the Miami product has been on the trade block.
With Big Blue unable to swing a trade for Flowers during the draft, he remains on the roster. The Giants do not have immediate plans to waive Flowers.
Dave Gettleman has attempted to shake up the team’s embattled offensive line, signing Solder and Patrick Omameh and following those additions up with a second-round selection of Will Hernandez. Flowers, nonetheless, now plays a position at which the Giants are otherwise understaffed. Second-year UDFA Chad Wheeler (five starts last season) represents Flowers’ primary competition on the right side.
Pat Shurmur believed Flowers and he were on the same page regarding the position change, SNY.tv’s Ralph Vacchiano notes, but he’s the only Giant that’s been away from the team during the offseason period thus far. And he didn’t let the team know he’d be working out in Miami instead.
“Definitely, I would say he needs to be here, as a teammate and as a captain because we need him here, need to get the line together so they can be on the same page,” Collins said. “… Ereck is my boy. At the same time, he has a lot to learn, and at the same time he has to work harder.
“He came in last year, he thought he did what he needed to do — he lost weight, he was in proper shape, thought he played good in the first couple of games and just kind of went downhill when the season went downhill.”
The Giants passed on Flowers’ fifth-year option, and although the edge blocker cannot be fined for missing Giants offseason work until June’s minicamp, time could be running out for this relationship.
Draft QB Fallout: Darnold, Allen, Mayfield
A draft that produced one of the longest rumor cycles surrounding quarterbacks in recent memory continues to generate fallout. And some of it centers on the quarterback that fell to No. 3.
Among the emotions expressed in the Jets’ war room after the Giants chose Saquon Barkley over Sam Darnold were disbelief and joy, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. But the Giants weren’t the only team many NFL executives and scouts believe helped out the Jets.
The Browns’ Baker Mayfield pick went against the grain, with Matt Miller of Bleacher Report writing that he only confirmed two teams — the Browns and Patriots — that rated the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner as the top quarterback in this draft. Conversely, 15 different teams rated Darnold as their top QB, Miller reports.
Mike Maccagnan decided to keep an airtight lid on his quarterback hierarchy, only informing Christopher Johnson and Todd Bowles of which signal-caller he had as his top-rated passer. The fourth-year Jets GM didn’t bother to assign final grades to the top five QBs in fear of that information seeping out, but grades were given to every other player on the Jets’ board, per Mehta. While the precise order here is not known, Mehta reports Darnold was the Jets’ top-rated passing prospect — one the team did not think would get past the Browns at No. 1 until very late in the process.
The Jets weren’t certain the Giants would pass on Darnold, either, but were aware of Dave Gettleman‘s interest in Barkley. One source informed Miller that Gettleman, indeed, did not pick up the phone regarding trade interest in the No. 2 overall pick. While Gettleman himself confirmed one team made a strong offer for No. 2, it’s unclear when on draft night that proposal emerged. Wowed by none of these QBs, the Giants did not have a consensus on which of these players was the best prospect.
While the Cardinals wound up with Josh Rosen, Miller reports Josh Allen was their top-rated quarterback. The team that actually drafted Allen, the Bills, had the Wyoming talent rated as this class’ No. 2 passer, Miller reports. Buffalo was one of the teams that viewed Darnold as this draft’s top QB.
No reports of Allen visiting the Cardinals emerged until he confirmed just before the draft he took a trip to Arizona. Miller notes the Cards may have tried to trade up for Allen prior to landing Rosen. Additionally, the Twitter controversy did not appear to affect Allen’s stock. Miller adds no sources indicated that played a role in their teams’ respective assessments of Allen.