Chomps
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- Mar 18, 2019
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Pat Shurmur isn’t Odell Beckham Jr.’s coach anymore, but he does have a 38-year-old quarterback to protect.
As such, the Giants head coach strained credulity Thursday by suggesting that Beckham’s fairly apparent dig at Eli Manning wasn’t really a dig at all.
When Beckham was talking about joining the Browns for minicamp, he was effusive in his praise of quarterback Baker Mayfield.
“I’m also going to have to get adjusted to the speed, because he’s got an arm,” Beckham said. “He’s throwing that ball hard. Just catching him from the first day, it was like, ‘Wow, this is completely different.'”
Unless Beckham was comparing Mayfield to the five attempts Kyle Lauletta had last year for the Giants or that Geno Smith start in 2017 which he wasn’t available for, it’s hard to imagine who else he had in mind if it wasn’t Manning.
“I would probably think of it as less a criticism of Eli and more … [Beckham’s] getting comfortable with his team,” Shurmur said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. “He’s around his teammates. He’s around his new community. I’m happy for him. He’s getting comfortable with his guys.
“I wouldn’t say it’s criticism of Eli. It’s more, hey, he likes who he is playing with.”
Sure it is, Pat.
While Beckham’s likely excited about playing with Mayfield, it’s impossible to take the context out of this one. Manning was the only starter he had ever played with, so if he likes the new one more, it means he prefers it to the old one.