Preparation key for Giants' new quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski

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 earlier this year. “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 of that when I was in New England.”

 Schuplinski said before that can happen, a coach needs to build a relationship with a young player.

“They have to know that you have their best interest at heart,” he said. “You want them to know that they can trust you, that you are there to help them. You have to be able to prove to them that the information you give them can help them be successful. That’s the first part of it.”

And then?

“You just keep hammering out the foundation, the foundation, the foundation,” he said. “It’s just getting the foundation down and taking our time with that.”

That’s the phase Schuplinski said he is in with Jones now, as the team begins lurching forward through this most unorthodox offseason.

 “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, and that’s been really helpful. 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 he’s doing and he has a lot of knowledge base underneath him so far.”

Schuplinski borrowed a metaphor from offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to describe the process.

“[He] always talks about the alphabet,” Schuplinski said. “We have to get the alphabet down before we can form words, before we do sentences, paragraphs, all that kind of stuff. That’s really what we’re focusing on now. I think if [Jones] gets that down, as he’s continuing to do...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. “He looks bigger and more solid,” Schuplinski said. “It hopefully makes him a little more durable when he’s taking hits in there.” The Giants did not ask Jones to add any weight or strength this offseason, but they seem to approve of the physique that he returned to them with. “Obviously he’s a guy that during the pandemic, he didn’t take time off,” Judge said. “Does it help him absorb hits better? I don’t know if there’s an absolute answer to that. It depends on who the hell is hitting you...But he definitely came in in shape.”... The Giants claimed WR C.J. Board off waivers from the Jaguars.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.