Giants coach Pat Shurmur will tell you one of the most striking things about guard Kevin Zeitler is his focus.
“He told me he caught a muskie this summer, and I know enough about fishing where they say it takes 10,000 casts to catch a muskie,” Shurmur said before the Giants’ third day of training camp on Saturday. “So, that’s a pretty focused guy. I think that’s part of his charm, his focus.
“Really, in every drill we do, whether it’s a walk-through or practice setting, he’s into it. I think that’s a good thing.”
Little does Shurmur know, Zeitler has actually caught at least four muskies in his life. When he’s up at his cabin in Eagle River, Wis., with his 11-month-old baby girl and wife, he likes to split his time between fishing and training for camp.
When Zeitler first walked through the doors of the Giants’ facility, he took notice of the four Super Bowl trophies. That was a bonus for him when he joined the Giants — he knew he was joining a historic franchise.
The Giants traded defensive end Olivier Vernon for Zeitler in March, picking up one of the top guards in the league. When Zeitler signed a five-year, $60 million contract with the Browns, he became the highest-paid guard in the NFL at that time.
He was drafted in the first round and 27th overall in 2012 by Cincinnati, where he played four seasons before heading to the Browns for two years. The 6-foot-4 offensive lineman is coming off of a tremendous season, allowing just one pressure per 58 snaps.
Shurmur has mentioned the importance of finding an identity within his offensive line, and Zeitler couldn’t be a more established addition.
“When I saw that we traded for him I was really excited because I knew that he was a legit guard, a guard that’s been playing for a lot of years in this league,” fellow guard Will Hernandez told The Post. “When he got here, I got to know him and I got to talk to him. Right off the bat he’s a really cool guy. He wants to be your friend, he wants to be cool, he wants to be close. He cares.”
But when Hernandez saw Zeitler step on the field for the first time, he knew he was all business. Hernandez, who started all 16 games for the Giants last year, realized Zeitler was a workhorse, and Hernandez wanted to learn from him.
Through picking Zeitler’s brain and spending time with him on the field and in the weight room, Hernandez said he feels he already has learned a lot from the 29-year-old. But the most noticeable thing Hernandez hopes to adopt is Zeitler’s focus.
“I think [my focus is] just one thing that allowed me to move ahead early in my career, in college it allowed me to pass people up,” Zeitler said following practice. “Once you get to the NFL — I was thrown in at starting right guard in Cincinnati right away. It was like, ‘OK, you don’t got time. You don’t have time, you are the starter, you have to be the best in the world at your position right now, because we can’t be waiting for you,’ type thing.”
That’s the thing about Zeitler, he takes every small walk-through, meeting and practice as seriously as he would if it were the Super Bowl.
But that’s just because he always would rather go for the trophy fish than anything else.
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