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Eli Apple, Davis Webb, Odell Beckham, more takeaways from Giants assistant coaches

Here’s more of what coaches talked about on Wednesday

NFL: New York Giants at Arizona Cardinals Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

New York Giants assistant coaches discussed a wide variety of topics on Wednesday. Here are a few takeaways.

Quarterback Davis Webb is — no surprise — a mystery to offensive coordinator Mike Shula.

“It’s been a little bit harder for me to evaluate Davis. Just getting here so late and then as soon as I got here, we’ve been at the Combine, we’ve been on the road,” Shula said. “I’ve looked at him, I got a chance to meet him in the cafeteria and I’m looking forward to finding out what he’s about. And I think coming up next here in the next few weeks with our veteran minicamp will help us gather more information on him.”

Shula is looking forward to working with Odell Beckham Jr.

“You know, God, he’s such an explosive player. We’ve watched what everyone else has seen what he can do on the field and I’m really looking forward to being able to work with a guy like that. Again, what you see on the field and talking to the guys that have had to defend him at Carolina and just how explosive he is and how he can get the ball in the end zone. So, we’re going to try to continue to build on that.”


I’m not sure how big offensive line coach Hal Hunter is but I doubt he’s more than 6-feet, 185 pounds. That makes him a midget for an NFL offensive line coach. Hunter, out of football last season for the first time in 35 years, spent the time visiting with college and pro coaches he knew, watching and learning.

Hunter has had conversation with Ereck Flowers, but didn’t want to divulge much. He did have a unique analogy for Flowers’ transition from left to right tackle.

“I golf right-handed. If all of a sudden I had to go golf left-handed it’s gonna be a while,” Hunter said. “He’s a good enough athlete that he’s going to be able to adjust to all that, but it’s like anything. All of a sudden all you guys have to write left-handed. You can do it, but it takes some time to adjust. There has to be patience on the learning curve.”


Defensive backs coach Lou Anarumo, like defensive coordinator James Bettcher, said Eli Apple has a fresh start.

“I wasn’t here so the only thing I can say is my conversations with him have been very positive. I know he wants to get back on the field as fast as he can and he’s ready to move forward with all of that stuff and so am I. Again, all positive stuff,” Anarumo said. “At the end of the day, the guy is still a very, very young guy and a very young player. I liked him coming out of Ohio State. When he walks in the room and you don’t know anything, you see a big, tall, long, athletic guy and in this league, there’s just not a ton of those guys. So with a guy that’s that young and going to be in a position to make plays, I can’t wait to start working with him on Monday.”

Assistant defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said Apple has “God-given ability that most people don’t have.”

“You know, there’s a reason you went in the first round. He’s a big guy, he can run, he’ll tackle and that’s the thing it takes to be a good corner, if you can get close in coverage. Everybody, every day, the one thing you can always control is your technique. We’ll work that daily. Tackling, you’ll work that,” Townsend said. “But he has God-given ability that most people don’t have. He’s 6’1”, runs a 4.4 and he’ll hit you. So, that’s something good to work with.”