By WFAN.com
Pat Shurmur believes he's a wiser coach today than he was when he took over the Browns seven years ago.
"Everything that happened there, you learn from, and then beyond," the first-year Giants head coach told WFAN's "Boomer & Gio" on Wednesday. "I felt like I wish I knew then what I know now.
"Even adding three years in Philadelphia with Chip (Kelly) and then the two years in Minnesota, you learn things. And having to go back and be an assistant again, it'd be like a starting quarterback getting benched and then you watch the other guy work for a while and you say, 'Oh, OK, there's something I can learn from this' and then you go back in and have great success. So that's what we're hoping happens."
Shurmur, 53, lasted two years in Cleveland, going 4-12 and 5-11 before being fired.
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He's now trying to turn around a Giants team that followed up an 11-5 playoff season in 2016 with a 3-13 disaster last year.
"It's a really, really small margin between 11-5 and 3-13," Shurmur said. "And when you watch the tape, you see evidence of a really good team. You see evidence of a young team. You see evidence of things that you'd like to change."
Some major offseason changes happened on the offensive line when the Giants signed former Patriots left tackle Nate Solder and drafted guard Will Hernandez in the second round.
Meanwhile, the Giants elected not to make a change at quarterback. After being briefly benched last season by former coach Ben McAdoo, Eli Manning is back under center for Big Blue.
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"I've always admired Eli, and I like that demeanor in a quarterback, where he's very calm," Shurmur said. "We all know, depending on what position you play, the emotions run hot. And so to have a coach and a quarterback hopefully that can stay calm, I think it's a steadying force for your team. So I've always appreciated the calmness that Eli plays with.
"And the proof's in the pudding. You're talking about a guy that was a two-time Super Bowl MVP. So it's there."
One challenge for McAdoo was managing Odell Beckham Jr., the electric but excitable wide receiver.
Shurmur says his philosophy for handling Beckham and other players is to build a relationship that extends beyond practice and game days and to be clear about what is expected of them.
"Every stage of these players' careers, whether it's junior high, high school, college, entering the NFL, they've always been coached and told what to do and what was expected," Shurmur said. "So why does it change here? I don't understand why that changes."
