LET’S MAKE A DEAL
Giants, Manning should get new contract done as 2015 season draws near
The more the Giants lose players to injuries and struggle to find replacements in key areas, the more this season starts to look like 2011. And not necessarily in the good, Super Bowl-winning way, either.
Underneath the championship glow of that season, there was this for the Giants: The NFL’s worst rushing attack, the league’s sixthworst defense, and an often shaky offensive line. But there was also Eli Manning, playing incredible football and carrying an extremely flawed team on his shoulders to the playoffs and beyond.
It was proof of what an elite quarterback can do. And there seems to be a strong hope in the Giants organization that, despite another flawed and already depleted roster, Manning can do it again.
All of which makes it odd that the Giants don’t seem eager or willing to pay Eli Manning what he’s worth.
Two weeks into training camp, and less than a month before the beginning of the final season of his current contract, Manning still does not have a contract extension from the Giants. There’s no real rush and there’s no worry that a deal won’t eventually happen. But plenty of people on both sides of these negotiations thought a deal would be much closer than it is.
According to sources familiar with the talks, there is a “significant gap” between what Manning’s camp believes he is worth and what the Giants are willing to pay. And that’s bizarre because the bar of Manning’s worth is pretty well set by a slew of deals signed by franchise quarterbacks in the last three years.
The latest came on Saturday night when Philip Rivers — technically an ex-Giant and the man traded for Manning on draft day in 2004 — signed a four-year contract extension worth a reported $83.25 million and an NFL-high $65 million guaranteed. With the $15.75 million Rivers is scheduled to be paid this season, he’s on track to make $99 million through 2019.
That’s what franchise quarterbacks are paid these days — around $20 million per year with more than $60 million guaranteed over four or five seasons. And Rivers and Manning have had fairly comparable careers. Both have led their teams to the playoffs five times — but just once in the last five years. Rivers’ numbers have been consistently better in the regular season, though Manning’s are superior in the playoffs.
And Manning, of course, has the ultimate advantage in the comparison — those two shiny Super Bowl championship rings.
The Giants surely understand they’re not going to get Manning at a discounted rate, and they don’t even have a good argument to suggest one. All the franchise-caliber quarterbacks who have signed extensions since 2012 have ended up in the top three in the NFL in average money per year and guaranteed money. The price of doing business with quarterbacks isn’t going to go down.
Nor should it, because what’s more important than a quarterback capable of carrying a team — especially for a Giants team that sure looks like it has a flawed roster, a badly depleted defense and, once again, a shaky offensive line? Despite all those issues, which were on display in their 23-10 preseason-opening loss in Cincinnati on Friday night, the Giants still returned home feeling optimistic.
And Eli Manning was a very big reason why.
“You have a guy like Eli who’s been to two Super Bowls, a twotime (Super Bowl) MVP, he knows what he’s doing,” said receiver Odell Beckham. “If he’s unfazed we’re all unfazed.”
It’s hard to put a cap on the value of a quarterback like that — one who gives a team a chance to win every season and every game, no matter what’s around him. Yes, the last three seasons have been miserable for the Giants. Just imagine how much worse they would’ve been with a quarterback like Geno Smith? Or Jay Cutler? Or Kyle Orton? Or Ryan Fitzpatrick?
John Mara, at the start of camp and in his only public comments so far on the negotiations, said of the slow talks, “We’re just going through the usual things that you go through. The agent asks for the moon, we make a reasonable offer, and at some point he’ll come to his senses and we’ll reach an T agreement.” here’s only one sensible conclusion, though: The Giants have to pay Manning. And they can’t really expect to pay him any less than Rivers thanks to those two rings. The bar has been set and they know they have to exceed it, because they have no alternative. Delaying the inevitable is just a game that there is no need to play.