MERITS SHOT
ELI Manning and Ben McAdoo say there is no fracture in their relationship to mend. All is well. “I think everybody’s gotten very sensitive, players and everybody, that if anybody says something negative about you or you did something wrong that you’ve got a problem,” Manning said Wednesday evening after a jog-thru practice. “Coach McAdoo and I have a great relationship.” Manning even went as far as saying that whether McAdoo or offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan calls the plays Sunday in Philadelphia, McAdoo’s decisions haven’t been the offense’s problem in this 0-2 start. “Besides me and the other quarterbacks, I don’t know if anybody would notice who’s calling the plays,” Manning said. “So I don’t think it’s the play-calling that’s been the problem, I think it’s the execution.”
And yet, it feels almost imperative that McAdoo passes the play-calling for Week 3 to Sullivan, given how lifeless the offense has been and how urgent a need there is for a spark of any kind.
McAdoo said he’s still deciding if he’ll give Sullivan a shot. “We’ll see,” the head coach. “We’ll do anything we can do to help us move the ball.” But McAdoo simply has to swallow his pride here and give Sullivan the go-ahead.
It is a natural fit, not only because Sullivan was Manning’s quarterback coach for the 2010 and Super Bowl 2011 seasons but because – as Manning said Wednesday – Sullivan often is in Manning’s headset for practices. He also called the plays for the Giants’ preseason finale in New England.
“(Sullivan has) done some preseason. He calls in practice a bunch. He’s called before,” Manning said. “I don’t know if he did any of the preseason games I was in or not, but in practice he’s usually the one in my helmet so McAdoo can coach and see what’s going on. So I can understand what he’s saying.”
If McAdoo plays head coach at practice and Sullivan communicates constantly with Manning, then changing play-calling duties for a regular season game would mimic their practice dynamic, which would seem like a logical course of action.
Sullivan is an interesting man. To meet him, you’d think he might be a pastor — friendly, empathetic, good listener. He is, in fact, an Army veteran, a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne, Ranger and Air Assault schools, and a resilient member of the Giants and NFL coaching community.
He entered the NFL as Tom Coughlin’s defensive quality control coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2002, became an offensive assistant as the only member of Coughlin’s staff retained in 2003, and then came to the Giants for six seasons as wide receivers coach and two coaching Manning and the QBs, winning two Super Bowls.
Most notably, though, in his first of two seasons as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator in 2012, Sullivan’s offense set franchise records with 5,820 yards and 389 points. The offense led by QB Josh Freeman and RB Doug Martin was balanced, ranking 10th in passing yards (248.9 per game), 15th in rushing (114.8) and ninth overall (363.8).
Freeman’s regression and Martin’s injury the next season contributed to a poor 2013, but the point is Sullivan has done this in the NFL before.
Sullivan clearly still has the itch, too, as any coach would, even if he was respectful of McAdoo’s coaching arrangement when asked about not calling the plays as offensive coordinator prior to Week 1.
“Well, it is different,” Sullivan admitted. “There is a feel that you get, there is a rhythm that you get into (when you’re calling the play). I’ll just say, first and foremost, it’s Ben’s decision to be the play caller and I support his decision, and my job is to do everything I can from a preparation standpoint to get our offensive unit ready from the practices and meetings and so forth.
“Then on game day, (I can) be an additional set of eyes and give some of the feedback to him from Eli or give some of the feedback to the offensive line coaches or the other coaches,” Sullivan added. “So, it is different, but at the end of the day, it is all about winning and doing whatever we can to win the game. And that’s what is most important.”
Manning, meanwhile, isn’t completely devoid of input on how the offense’s X’s and O’s can improve. He suggested after Monday night’s loss to the Lions that the Giants offense must “figure out what’s our best personnel, what’s our best style, how we’re going to be able to move the ball.” And on Wednesday, Manning clarified: he likes what he’s seen from two tight end sets, and it may be beneficial to simplify rather than run too much trickery.
“You’ve got to mix up your personnel. We don’t want to get into that world of being in one personnel,” Manning said. “I think we’ve done some good things in our two tight end sets. We hit a big play last week down the sideline to Jerell (Adams). So we’ve just got to figure out how much different types of plays we’re gonna run, or do we just wanna stick with what we know and what we’re good at, (and not) get too adventurous where we’re running things that might not put us in the best situation.” hese are all good ideas for Manning to share with McAdoo, but on Sunday’s sideline, he should be sharing them directly with Sullivan. It can’t get any worse. Maybe a change at the top can make it better.
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