Eli’s time short for last glory
ALL 32 NFL training camps open each summer with some combination of optimism and uncertainty, the former a refreshing luxury of any clean slate and the latter an inherent burden of the imposing task of building a championship team in the highest-profile sport in the country.
At Giants camp starting Thursday in East Rutherford, though, and increasingly so every summer really since 2005, Eli Manning has been the unfailing and reassuring constant presence in a not-always-so-rosy landscape.
He has grown through the years despite obvious flaws into a two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback, a 12-year veteran who never misses a start — or a snap, for that matter — and walks into the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Thursday as this club’s compass coming off of two of the best statistical seasons of his career.
The questions are about the Giants’ defense, about GM Jerry Reese’s summer spending spree to fix it and Reese’s own future, about Victor Cruz’s health, Jason PierrePaul’s right hand, Big Blue’s four-year playoff drought – about most elements, really, other than Manning.
But maybe the Giants need to start asking a question about Manning. Not about his ability, but about his age and the franchise’s urgency to lift that Lombardi Trophy once again.
That question is: How many years does Manning, who turns 36 in January, realistically have remaining to capture a third Super Bowl title? And how are the Giants going to get there quickly enough?
Manning has excelled with McAdoo as offensive coordinator, but how will their dynamic change now that McAdoo is head coach?
Will McAdoo still call all of the plays? If so, will he sit in on install meetings and weekly reviews with Manning and the offense as frequently? Will he and Manning consult on plays and packages just as they did when Tom Coughlin ran the show and McAdoo was able to specialize?
Or will OC Mike Sullivan, promoted from quarterbacks coach, be the one more frequently in Manning’s ear, or lending his own to the franchise quarterback, as McAdoo embraces the additional responsibility that comes with being a head coach?
Not to mention whether the offensive line, particularly the right side, will hold up, and whether Cruz will play and rookie Sterling Shepard will deliver on the promise of an encouraging summer since Reese drafted him in April.
Brother Peyton became the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl at 39 last winter, but that painful-to-watch version only was able to do so because the Denver Broncos boasted one of the best defenses in NFL history.
A quarterback at least 37 years of age has started in each of the past three Super Bowls — Peyton in 2014 and 2016 for the Broncos, and Brady in 2015.
Is Eli worthy of immortal NFL status? If he won a third championship, he’d have an argument.
Joe Montana, Brady and Terry Bradshaw all have won four Super Bowls. Troy Aikman won three, and then it’s a logjam at two apiece including Eli, Peyton, Elway, Ben Roethlisberger, Bart Starr, Roger Staubach, Bob Griese and Plunkett.
Eli’s current contract runs through 2019, when he will be 38 at the start of the season and 39 by the time Super Bowl LIV rolls around. If he doesn’t win another title, he still will have a permanent place in the Giants Ring of Honor, and debatably in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Five franchise Super Bowls also would pull the Giants even with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys for second all-time, behind only the Pittsburgh Steelers’ six. t the moment, Manning and long-snapper Zak DeOssie are the only players remaining from Super Bowl XLII, Eli’s first title, and soon, neither will be on the sidelines at MetLife Stadium. McAdoo could end up being Manning’s last NFL head coach, and the next few years will go a long way toward determining just how great a legacy Eli will leave.
But time is running out.
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