Pat Shurmur: Giants coach says “everything counts” in evaluating players

The New York Giants preseason game on Friday against the New York Jets is their third, the traditional “dress rehearsal” game in which starters play the most snaps of any time before the regular season.

Giants coach Pat Shurmur on Wednesday said that in terms of evaluating the 53-man roster this game isn’t any different than the other preseason games.

“It’s part of it. It’s one of the four games we look at. It’s just like any other game. I think you’ve got to put equal stock in all the games,” Shurmur said.” It’s not like old Catholic school, you know. You can’t throw out your worst test. They all count, everything counts.”

Will Odell Beckham Jr. play?

Shurmur keeps being asked if the star wide receiver will take some reps against the Jets. He keeps finding ways to deflect the question, saying Wednesday that Beckham has “gotten so much work behind the scenes, we’ll just have to see how it plays out.”

That’s Shurmur’s way of, again, telling the media nicely that he isn’t answering the question.

On starting center Jon Halapio

This, to be honest, is an odd quote from Shurmur.

“Jon is very smart. He blinks fast. He makes good decisions in terms of getting us going in the right direction. He generally plays center for us at this point.”

On how the Giants will handle the days before and after games

“Tomorrow’s a mock game, I’ll have a traditional schedule. They’ll come in on Monday, we’ll watch the tape, settle all debts. That way if they are a little angry with me they can go home on their off day, simmer down and come back on (Wednesday). Basically I think it’s important to clean up the game film and otherwise then come back Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and train. Saturday have a traditional mock game, which is more mental.”