Giants’ TE Rhett Ellison says Pat Shurmur is “real”

Having played for him when Pat Shurmur was an assistant coach with the Minnesota Vikings, tight end Rhett Ellison is one of the few New York Giants who knew what the team would be getting in their first-year head coach.

“Shurmur, he is what you’re going to get, like that’s who he is. He doesn’t change around different people or in different positions, he is who he is. He’s real, he’s a great communicator and he’s a great teacher. The speed that we’re picking up this offense is really awesome and that’s a credit to him and the coaches that he hired,” Ellison said following Monday’s OTA.

“Some coaches are really good at teaching the system. He keeps it simple, he kind of has a good way of explaining it and he has coaches that all know the system very well. Like bringing in [Offensive Coordinator Mike] Shula, who’s been in this system and stuff like that. So, there’s just a lot of years, a lot of experience teaching this system.”

Ellison, a veteran tight end in his second season with the Giants, said the system involves “really just the language of how the plays are called” and that “there’s definitely some similarities, and there’s been some tweaks” to what Shurmur ran in Minnesota.

Ellison was part of the Giants’ 3-13 disaster last season.

“You have to look yourself in the mirror, you have to look at why we were 3-13 individually. And then that’s what the offseason is. You’re building on that, you’re trying to get better at your weaknesses, strengthen your strengths, make the corrections and just changing the culture. Because you obviously don’t want that 3-13 culture to carry over into this season,” he said. ‘So, I think it’s just like any mistake you make, you just look at it and you make the correction and you move on.”