Giants Head Coach Pat Shurmur on Sam Darnold: 'An Outstanding Young Quarterback'

Giants head coach Pat Shurmur heaps praise on Sam Darnold

A year ago, the New York Giants passed on the opportunity to take a franchise quarterback in Sam Darnold. Now, Giants head coach Pat Shurmur is watching Darnold’s progression across town and is impressed. 

It may be a difficult second year in the league for Darnold and the 1-7 Jets, but that hasn’t stopped those around the league from not only seeing his potential but developing a favorable opinion of the young quarterback. Last offseason, the Giants used the second pick in the NFL Draft to select running back Saquon Barkley, a draft pick that certainly has worked out well for them given that Barkley was the league’s offensive rookie of the year. 

The Giants waited a year later to select Daniel Jones, their present and future franchise quarterback. One pick after the Giants selected Barkley in 2018, the Jets gave Darnold his home in New York. 

“I see an outstanding young quarterback. He can play and he can help his team win games,” Giants head coach Pat Shurmur said. “That’s what I see.” 

As a franchise, all signs have pointed to the Giants making the right move at that time in selecting Barkley with the second pick. Quarterback Eli Manning was under contract until the end of the 2019 season and Barkley over the past two seasons has developed into a legitimate playmaker out of the backfield. Although like Darnold, this hasn’t been an easy year for the running back. 

At the time, there was some criticism of the Giants in not taking one of the draft’s young quarterbacks (Darnold or other first round picks such as Josh Rosen or trading back to select Lamar Jackson later in the first round). Barkley is a franchise player and the Giants pick this year, the aforementioned Jones, has shown flashes of being a solid NFL quarterback. 

The Giants likely never seriously considered Darnold despite an impressive film out of USC. Instead, all signs pointed towards them being sold on Barkley as a building block of their own rebuild. 

“We had a high opinion of him. Thought he was an outstanding player,” Shurmur said of Darnold. “A well-accomplished player that we were pretty certain he was going to have an outstanding career.”