THE FALL OF MANN
End of an era as Giants hero Eli benched
He’s been the quarterback since 2004, winner of two Super B o wl s and holder of many Giants records. But Eli Manning may have played his last game after being benched for Daniel Jones.
THE TRANSFER of power came not with a profane sideline rant, nor in the terrible moment of a broken bone or a blown-out knee or a ruined shoulder, but via a gentle whisper, offered to the team’s website. That’s how one era ends and another begins. A simple announcement. A peaceful proclamation.
“We are making a change,” Giants coach Pat Shurmur said, “and going with Daniel as the starter.”
So Daniel Jones’ apprenticeship lasted two games. The Giants got hammered by the Cowboys and humbled by the Bills, and suddenly the future is at hand. The Giants’ present predicament isn’t all Eli Manning’s doing, but he will be the one to pay the steepest public price. And now we will see what the kid can do. You up for this, kid? You ready? “My job is to learn, to absorb everything I can. That’s the opportunity I’ve been given and I’m going to make the most of that opportunity,” Jones said just over a week ago, in front of his locker inside AT&T Stadium, after making a brief late-game cameo against the Cowboys.
“I’m the backup quarterback. And I want to be the best backup quarterback I can be.”
He had no inkling that a battlefield promotion could happen so quickly because nobody did. That wasn’t the plan. If it were, Manning wouldn’t have been brought back at such a steep number this year. In March, the Giants committed to $5. 5 million in bonuses and an $11.5 million salary, even as it seemed to run so counter to the rest of the operation, which was all about rebuilding, reloading, retooling, reorganizing.
In the summer, John Mara, one of the team’s owners, said: “I hope Eli has a great year and Daniel never sees the field. That would be in an ideal world, you’d like to see that. At the end of the day it’s going to be a decision by the head coach as to when, or if, Daniel ends up playing this year.”
If has become “when” awfully quickly, and “where” will be Raymond James Stadium in Tampa this Sunday. It was assumed that if the Giants switched quarterbacks this year, it would come under circumstances similar to when Manning replaced Kurt Warner 15 years ago, when the team determined it wasn’t in a title hunt (despite being 5-4 at the time) and opted to fully embrace the future.
No such lead time this time. Teams have recovered from 0-2 starts before (nobody can tell that tale better than Eli, after all), so the stakes are far different than they were in 2004, and far greater. The Giants won’t say they’re hoping Jones can provide a spark to turn the season around, but that’s clearly on the table now, making the switch as early as they have. You up for this, kid? You ready? “Daniel understands the challenge at hand,” Shurmur said, “and he will be ready to play on Sunday.” He was ready all summer, when his snaps were the most anticipated of any in town. Maybe there is no value to those practice games, but SOMEONE has to play quarterback during them, and Jones was terrific, completing 29 of his 34 pass attempts for 416 yards and two touchdowns. It was enough to change the perception a lot of people had about Jones, whom the Giants took with the No. 6 pick in the draft rather than trying to strengthen their defense, who may or may not have still been available when they picked again at No. 17.
Ultimately, as much as this move is an opportunity for Jones to grab his star, it is a critical moment in time to determine what kind of general manager Dave Gettleman is. Gettleman puzzled many when he bypassed a quarterback in the QB-rich draft of 2018 in order to draft Saquon Barkley, who was a dazzling star from the moment he first touched an NFL football, but seemed destined to languish in a Barry Sanders-like fugue without a sidekick to work with. Gettleman insisted his choice was made easier because he wasn’t blown away by the Class of 2018 QBs, then doubled down on that by identifying Jones as his guy.
Now, he has his guy, same as George Young had Phil Simms, same as Ernie Accorsi had Manning, choices that filled the trophy cases at 1925 Giants Drive with four Lombardi trophies. If Gettleman is right, it’ll go a long way toward determining his legacy. And also if he’s wrong. “Ultimately, this is a move that I felt was best for this team at this time,” Shurmur said. “This move is more about Daniel moving forward than about Eli.”
So nothing much is riding on this. You up for this, kid?
You ready?