While New York Giants fans might have had a hard time watching the Philadelphia Eagles power their way into Super Bowl LII in emphatic fashion with a 38-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings, Pat Shurmur is now officially available.
The Vikings offensive coordinator can now negotiate and sign with another team now that his season is over. It is all but a given that he will accept the Giants offer to become their next head coach.
NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported shortly after Minnesota’s loss that Shurmur will meet with the Giants “at the soonest possible time” to put the finishing touches on the deal. Paul Schwartz of the New York Post added that the meeting will take place on Tuesday while the hiring will be made official shortly after.
Unfortunately for Shurmur, his final game overlooking the Vikings offense wasn’t the best kind of impression to give the Giants. Minnesota was manhandled by the Eagles defense, putting up just 333 total yards and a season-low 70 rushing yards to go with their measly seven points.
Granted, he worked his magic with Case Keenum, a journeyman backup quarterback, for most of the season as the unlikely passer that stepped in for an injured Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford went 11-3 as a starter in the regular season.
Shurmur was also the mastermind behind the Vikings’ epic final drive of the NFC Divisional Round against the New Orleans Saints when Keenum hit Stefon Diggs for the game-winning 61-yard touchdown as time expired.
This will be Shurmur’s second permanent stint as an NFL head coach. He went 9-23 in two seasons with the Cleveland Browns from 2011-2012 before going 1-0 as the interim head coach of the Eagles in 2015. He has spent a combined seven years as an offensive coordinator with the St. Louis Rams, Eagles and Vikings.
Even after two years with the Browns though, this could be the toughest challenge he’s ever faced as he’ll take over a Giants team in transition mode after a dismal 3-13 season. He will be working under a new general manager in Dave Gettleman, who was hired last month after the team fired Jerry Reese alongside Ben McAdoo. Eli Manning is playing out the final phase of his Giants career even though he’s slated to start 2018 under center, which means he could be working with a new, unproven quarterback depending on what the team does with their No. 2 pick in the 2018 NFL draft.
While he contends with that, Shurmur will have to try and keep big personalities like Odell Beckham Jr. content in order to keep things smooth in the locker room.
