An era comes to an end as the flailing Giants bench Manning
FOR the first time in 13 years, Eli Manning will not start for the New York Giants. Manning, one of just 12 quarterbacks to win two or more Super Bowls, has been benched in the middle of an underwhelming season and will be replaced by Geno Smith.
It looks like an ignominious end for Manning, who has started every Giants game since November 21, 2004, a streak of 210 consecutive regular season games that ranks second on the quarterback career list to Brett Favre’s 297. Manning is not expected to play Sunday against the Oakland Raiders, with the team focusing on Smith and Davis Webb, whom the Giants took with the 87th pick in this year’s draft.
“Geno will start this week,” coach Ben McAdoo said in an article on the Giants’ website.
“Over the last five games, we will take a look at Geno, and we will also give Davis an opportunity.”
While Smith wore out his welcome quickly as a member of the New York Jets, both on and off the field, his promotion will nevertheless make the Giants the 32nd and final NFL team to start a black player at quarterback, 49 years after Marlin Briscoe became the first, with the Denver Broncos. Smith will also be the first quarterback to start for both the Jets and the Giants.
The Giants, who fell to 2-9 with a loss to theWashington Redskins on Thanksgiving, have struggled on many fronts, but Manning was particularly ineffective in what could be his final start for the team, completing 13 of 27 passes for 113 yards and an interception.
This has not been Manning’s worst season statistically, but at 36 years old, with his days of willing his team into contention seemingly behind him, the Giants felt it was time to look at other options.
“This is not a statement about anything other than we are 2-9, and we have to do what is best for the organization moving forward, and that means evaluating every position,” Jerry Reese, the Giants’ general manager, said in a statement. “I told Eli this morning that an organization could not ask for any more in a franchise quarterback. He has been that and more.”
Manning’s demotion shocked players around the league, with current and former teammates posting messages of support on social media.
“Eli deserves much better than that. Much better,” Osi Umenyiora, the former Giants defensive end, wrote on Twitter. “Class person, class player. That’s absurd.”
“Surprised is not the word,” Tom Coughlin, who coached Manning in both of his Super Bowl wins, said in a radio interview. “My sentiments are totally with Eli Manning. I love the kid. He is a class act. He is a two-time Super Bowl champ. He is the finest, most humblest young man in that locker room. I haven’t followed the Giants. I know it’s a disappointing year, but my thoughts are strictly with Eli. I’m very upset about when I heard that.”
In a nod to Manning’s status with the team and his long string of starts, the Giants gave Manning the opportunity to continue starting (before ceding to Smith or Webb) to maintain his streak, but he declined.
“Coach McAdoo told me I could continue to start while Geno and Davis are given an opportunity to play,” Manning told reporters. “My feeling is that if you are going to play the other guys, play them. Starting just to keep the streak going and knowing you won’t finish the game and have a chance to win it is pointless to me, and it tarnishes the streak.”
Blaming Manning for the Giants’ lost season would be a stretch. He has spent much of the year without his two top wide receivers, Odell Beckham Jr and Brandon Marshall, both of whom were lost to severe injuries, and the defence has allowed the second-most yards in the NFL. But the Giants’ offence has been atrocious, ranking second to last in the league in scoring and fifth from the bottom in yards per game.
Despite the team’s struggles, just a few weeks ago, following the Giants’ loss to the previously winless San Francisco 49ers, the team’s owners, John Mara and Steve Tisch, issued a vote of confidence for McAdoo.
“Ben McAdoo is our head coach and has our support,” the statement said. “We are in the midst of an extremely disappointing season. Our performance this year, particularly the past two weeks, is inexcusable and frustrating. While we appreciate that our fans are unhappy with what has occurred, nobody is more upset than we are.”
The same support did not surface for Manning, despite his rare status as a two-time Super Bowl winner. Of the other 11 quarterbacks to have two or more Super Bowl wins, seven are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, two are locks to eventually be inducted (Tom Brady and Peyton Manning), one is very likely to be inducted (Ben Roethlisberger) and one is eligible but has thus far not been elected ( Jim Plunkett).
Manning, whose heroics were instrumental in both of his Super Bowl wins, is likely closer to Roethlisberger than Plunkett in terms of overall reputation, but a difficult end to his tenure with the Giants does not help his case.
Manning got a huge vote of confidence, in terms of career accomplishments, from one of the Giants’ two other Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, Phil Simms.
“#EliManning can stand tall and proud and will for the rest of his life for all he has been to @Giants,” Simms wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
For now, the Giants’ offence will fall under the control of Smith, the team’s 27-year-old backup, who has not started a game since October 23, 2016, (his second most recent start was in 2014). Smith’s career passer rating of 72.3 is considerably lower than Manning’s mark this season of 84.1, and his record as a starter was just 12-18 over a period of four seasons for the New York Jets.
That it has taken the Giants this long to have a black starting quarterback is surprising, considering how long ago Briscoe debuted, but the Giants have plenty of company in terms of taking their time on that front. Nine teams had started a black player at quarterback by the end of the 1970s, but there were still five teams who had not had one as recently as 2010.
The New England Patriots were the last team before the Giants to join the list when Jacoby Brissett started two games for the team last year.
The Giants have five games left this season, with three at home and two on the road. They have already ensured a losing season, and appear headed to their worst finish since the team went 4-12 in 2003. It was that team’s poor record that gave the Giants the No4 pick in the 2004 draft, which, after a trade with the San Diego Chargers, landed them Manning.