Coaches are supposed to teach the players, but when you are a young assistant and Tom Brady is in your room it can often be the other way around. So it was when Jerry Schuplinski spent the 2016-18 seasons on the staff with the Patriots. And to some extent _ minus the rings of course _ it was a similar situation last year when he was the assistant quarterbacks coach for the Dolphins and Ryan Fitzpatrick was their signal-caller.
It was an education for Schuplinski. The biggest lesson he learned?
"Preparation is so key," he said. "I had the opportunity to look at some guys and see how they prepare, how hard they work, how much they knew what to expect from a certain defense and how that could help them."
It's wisdom that he now gets to pass along to a new pupil.
Schuplinski is the Giants' quarterbacks coach this season, and while many in the organization are playing a role in the development of Daniel Jones in his second year as an NFL player, it will be Schuplinski's direct challenge to steer the quarterback forward. And so far, after having worked for so many years with starting quarterbacks who had literally decades of experience in the league, he likes what he's seen from his young charge.
"He's a great worker," Schuplinski said during a virtual news conference on Thursday, "and I think he's on the right track in terms of his preparation."
Besides the veterans he has worked with _ including the player many believe to be the greatest quarterback of all time _ Schuplinski also has experience working with young players. In New England, he was instrumental in the development of Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett, both of whom left the Patriots to become successful starters elsewhere.
"Thinking back on everything, I owe him so much," Garoppolo told Newsday at the Super Bowl with the 49ers. "He's a great guy at simplifying things, taking a complicated offense and simplifying it for a quarterback. I think that's crucial and he did a great job when I was in New England."
"Everybody, whether they are a vet or a young player, you start from square one and go and you keep growing and you keep learning what they know and what they don't know," Schuplinski said. "Daniel, he's done a nice job. He got a lot of great experience last year. But certainly the vets have just seen a lot more. He doesn't have as much game experience but I'd say he's really well prepared with everything and he has a lot of knowledge so far."
Schuplinski borrowed a metaphor from offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to describe the process.
" always talks about the alphabet," Schuplinski said. "We have to get the alphabet down before we can form words, before we do sentences, paragraphs. That's really what we're focusing on now. I think if gets that down ... then I think we'll have a good shot to really work fundamentally and getting the whole system down to be productive in it."
Notes & quotes: Wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert, one of the few holdovers from the previous coaching staff, said it has been "an honor" to work with new coach Joe Judge. "We know as a staff exactly what we have to do day in and day out and I think a lot of us respond better that way," he said ... Schuplinski said he met Jones very early in the offseason and when he saw him again in person at the start of training camp he noticed the 10 pounds or so of muscle that the quarterback had gained.
