New York Giants: Don’t fire Pat Shurmur, at least not yet

Head coach Pat Shurmur deserves a chance to fix the New York Giants, if only because he wasn’t responsible for breaking the team in the first place.

The New York Giants should not fire head coach Pat Shurmur before any point of the 2019 season. Okay, the Giants shouldn’t fire him yet. Things change quickly in the NFL, and that could be the case with this situation. If, say, Shurmur slugs Odell Beckham Jr. in the face during an argument or, you know, gets arrested because he almost (allegedly) hits a police officer with his vehicle because he’s late for work, the Giants may need to revisit the situation.

For the now and the foreseeable future, the Giants need a head coach in charge of a rebuild, and Shurmur is the most realistic, if not the best, man for the job as of this November.

No, Jim Harbaugh has no reason to leave Michigan to head to the Big Apple in January. Lincoln Riley will have better options available if he wants to dip his toe in the NFL waters during the winter. Don’t even waste time dreaming of Bill Belichick, Giants fans. It’s not happening.

When the Giants paid Shurmur to take the gig, he was sold on the concept that this was a win-now team capable of competing for another title with two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning under center. Sometimes, you bust when you go all-in, and general manager Dave Gettleman has been left without chips and forced to wait for next year’s poker tournament.

If nothing else, Shurmur has been a true pro through this awful process in that he hasn’t completely thrown his quarterback under the bus. You don’t have to be an insider or someone with a pass into the locker room for post-game interviews to see the coach isn’t enamored with his quarterback these days.

Just watch the guy on the sideline as Manning checks down or makes a critical error when a game is still within reach:

Clearly, Manning isn’t all that ails this offense heading into the second half of what is already a lost season. His offensive line is atrocious, a sieve-like unit that is worse than bad. One could make the joke that the only thing those guys could block are fans on Twitter, but the individual who used to do so is no longer a member of the organization.

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If the team’s 1-7 record wasn’t sign enough that the Giants are looking past 2018, New York’s mini-fire-sale that would have involved trading more players if other franchises would have met asking prices offered proof that the tear-down is already on.

Manning won’t, and shouldn’t, be on the roster come March. The era has ended. Davis Webb should be getting ready to take the keys to the offense, but that’s a different topic for a difference piece.

For starters, Gettleman and company need to do whatever possible to get Shurmur a quarterback he can work with and, potentially, mold. Maybe it’s Teddy Bridgewater, who will be available once his current contract with the New Orleans Saints voids in March and who worked under Shurmur when the two were with the Minnesota Vikings.

Perhaps it’s someone the Giants will spend a first-round pick on during the draft. Heck, the Giants could even afford both! What a time for Shurmur to be in charge.

This is not meant as a complete endorsement of Shurmur. He’s made his own mistakes in games, and he’s admitted as such during interviews with WFAN personality Mike Francesa. Those who follow the Cleveland Browns know all about his flaws as a coach. Nobody should forget he was an attractive candidate for multiple jobs less than a year ago. His offensive mind hasn’t disappeared just because he has more power than he did in Minnesota or with the Philadelphia Eagles.

There is no known player revolt under Shurmur as there supposedly was a year ago when Ben McAdoo lost the locker room. The Giants are still playing hard, at least they have up through the Bye, and that’s an argument in favor of coaching. A full restart isn’t necessary this time around. Shurmur should lead the charge for the beginning of what will probably be a long and painful process.