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Giants' Apple on brutal 2017: 'Nobody wants to go out the way I went out'

Al Bello / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The New York Giants went through a nightmare 2017 season, and few players embodied their horrific campaign more than cornerback Eli Apple.

Apple, a first-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft, was embroiled in several controversies as the Giants struggled to a 3-13 year.

He was fined for tweeting on the sideline during a December game. He was also suspended for the Giants' season finale due to conduct detrimental to the team, and teammate Landon Collins labeled Apple a "cancer" for his behavior throughout the year.

Apple was offered a clean slate from new Giants general manager Dave Gettleman, and he seems to be embracing the second chance.

“Nobody wants to go out the way I went out,” Apple said to Dan Salomone of the team's official website. "I mean, it was all over the place, so of course."

Giants head coach Pat Shurmur, who replaced the fired Ben McAdoo, seems impressed by Apple's new approach.

"I think that it speaks to maturity and it speaks to owning successes and failures," Shurmur said. "We have to be willing to, OK, if a mistake happened, in order to move forward from a mistake or something that went wrong, we have to admit that it happened and that we were involved in it. What you do is you find a solution, you make the correction and you move on past. That is really what we do play to play. As professionals in this business, we do this probably game to game and season to season."

Apple wasn't effective in 2017, finishing the year with a 73.6 grade from Pro Football Focus (ranked 72nd among cornerbacks). But he still managed 49 tackles and eight pass deflections in 11 games.

Entering his third year, the 22-year-old is excited to lead a renewed effort from the Giants.

"I'm just trying to grow with the defense and get the techniques down that the coaches are teaching," Apple said. "Just keep a positive mindset because the whole team, the defensive guys, we know it’s going to be a grinding season."

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