Giants fans looking for a change at right tackle should proceed with caution. Frustration is likely to follow.
Pat Shurmur doesn’t sound like he’s contemplating benching Ereck Flowers after his shaky debut at right tackle Sunday in a 20-15 loss to the Jaguars. The coach repeatedly came to the former first-round pick’s defense Monday.
“He’s like every player. He had a lot of really good plays and he had a couple he would like to have back,” Shurmur said.
Flowers, playing his first game at the position after moving over from the left side with the offseason addition of Nate Solder, committed two penalties on the game’s first three plays and was beaten cleanly for a sack by Lerentee McCray. It was emblematic of a rough first game for the new-look Giants offensive line. Pro Football Focus graded him out to a poor 49.6.
“I just got to be better,” said Flowers, a whipping boy of the fan-base since he was taken ninth overall in the 2015 draft and struggled badly at left tackle his first three seasons in the league. “I’m trying to get better at other things to play more consistent. … It was my first game [on the] right [side], probably the best pass-rushers I’ve played [against on the right side]. So it was a little different. But got to get better.”
It’s uncertain if Flowers was at fault for Eli Manning’s pick-six early in the fourth quarter when he couldn’t stay in front of Yannick Ngakoue, resulting in a deflection and 32-yard touchdown return by Myles Jack. On the play, Flowers said he actually had the responsibility to block two players: Ngakoue and blitzing linebacker Telvin Smith. Smith never actually blitzed — he faked it — but Flowers had to step inside to protect against the possibility, leaving him in bad position to get back for Ngakoue.
“If I blocked [Ngakoue] and didn’t get [to Smith] inside, I would be wrong. It was kind of a hard play,” Flowers said. “I don’t really care what a lot of people have to say about this and that. I care about what my coach says, and the people next to me, and that’s all I really care about.
“If he feels like I’m wrong on the play, then I’ll take that, ‘OK, coach, yeah, you’re right.’ But if [it’s] somebody who is not really in the room, doesn’t know the play, doesn’t know what we’re doing, doesn’t matter to me.”
After the defeat, his Wikipedia page was messed with. A passage was edited to read “Ereck Flowers is a soon-to-be free agent, American football offensive tackle currently playing for the New York Giants of the National Football League.” It was changed back. The Giants have declined the fifth-year option on Flowers, making him a free agent following the season.
“I can take it – it’s whatever to me,” Flowers said. “I’m playing for the dudes in this room, dudes on this team we’ve been working all season with. [The criticisms] going to be there regardless. I don’t lose sleep over it.”
Shurmur said they rotate players during the week at several positions on the offensive line, including right tackle, to create flexibility in case of injury for game days. But when asked if he considered removing Flowers in the loss to the Jaguars, Shurmur said he had not.
“As you know, I’m fond of our roster, I’m fond of our offensive linemen and Erick had a lot of really good plays yesterday,” Shurmur said. “So what we’re going to do is try to help him with some of the technique work that he can improve on, just like any other player, to eliminate some of those mistakes.”
When asked what it would take for him to use someone else at right tackle, Shurmur said, “We’ll see, we’ll see.”
“Right now, what we’re doing is trying to get every player better,” he said. “I’ll probably say it for the 10th time now: He had a lot of plays that were really good.”
Flowers insisted he isn’t concerned about his status as a starter. Improving will take care of that.
“You can’t think like that,” he said. “You have to go out and play as hard as you can play.”