National Post (National Edition)
Jones takes reins from future hall of famer Manning
Giants bench veteran QB in favour of rookie
Eli Manning’s nearly uninterrupted 16-season run as the New York Giants’ starting quarterback is over.
And the Daniel Jones era has begun in the Big Apple.
Giants head coach Pat Shurmur announced Tuesday that Manning has been demoted to second string and Jones — a rookie drafted sixth overall in April — is the team’s new starting passer.
The Giants have begun the season 0-2 and visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
The move had been expected sooner than later this season, ever since the Giants drafted Jones.
“Eli and I spoke this morning,” Shurmur said in a statement. “I told him that we are making a change and going with Daniel as the starter. I also talked to Daniel.
“Eli was obviously disappointed, as you would expect, but he said he would be what he has always been, a good teammate, and continue to prepare to help this team win games. Daniel understands the challenge at hand, and he will be ready to play on Sunday.”
Shurmur telegraphed the move at his Monday news conference, when he quite purposefully leaked that such a move was possible when he refused to confirm Manning as this week’s starter for the 232nd time in New York’s last 233 games.
“Ultimately, this is a move that I felt was best for this team at this time,” Shurmur said. “I have said it since I got here (that) I am very fond of Eli. His work ethic, his preparation, his football intelligence. All those attributes are as good as I have ever seen in a player. And Eli worked as hard as you could ask of anybody to get ready for this season.
“This move is more about Daniel moving forward than about Eli.”
It wasn’t that Manning was terrible in New York’s opening losses. In a 35-17 loss at Dallas in Week 1 and in a 28-14 loss in the Giants’ home opener against Buffalo on Sunday, Manning completed 63 per cent of his throws for two touchdowns and two interceptions for a substandard passer rating of 78.7.
As has been the case for several seasons now, it’s not so much that Manning’s stats are bad, it’s that he isn’t consistently completing topshelf passes down the field as he once did.
Sure, a lot of that has to do with the terrible pass protection he has received since basically the moment he last put down the Lombardi Trophy in February 2012. And it’s also a fact that his receiving corps since then — outside of Odell Beckham Jr. from 2014-18, when he was healthy — has been particularly poor.
No matter as he’ll now watch Giants games from the sideline as Jones’ backup.
The 22-year-old completed 85 per cent of his pre-season throws for two touchdowns and without an interception. And Shurmur and anyone else you can put a microphone to inside Giants HQ will try to assure you that Jones has been progressing far faster than even they expected.
That’s fine.
But now Jones has to prove it and against real NFL-level competition, meaning against coaches and starters game-planning specifically to defend him — which typically is not the case in August.
In a training camp interview in July, I asked Jones how much pressure he felt, given that everyone and their brother who cares about the Giants expected him to take over from Manning earlier rather than later this season.
“I see it as a tremendous opportunity for me to come into a situation with someone like Eli, a future Hall of Fame quarterback who has played very well for a long period of time,” Jones said. “Being able to watch him and learn from him is a huge opportunity.
“Maybe there’s some pressure with it, but I think I’m in a good spot. As long as I’m progressing and taking steps forward, I think I’ll be fine.”
Jones performed more than merely fine in the pre-season. In four games, he completed 29 of 34 passes (85.3 per cent) for 416 yards, two touchdowns no interceptions and a glittering 137.3 passer rating.
As for Manning’s future, outside of a one-week benching for Geno Smith in November 2017, he had been the Giants’ starter since Week 11 of 2004, when he supplanted Kurt Warner.
Manning’s career record as New York’s starter is 116-116 (.500) in the regular season and a glistening 8-4 (.667) in the playoffs, including those two Super Bowl championships following the 2007 and 2011 seasons when both times he was named Super Bowl MVP.
His benching at age 38 now begs at least two pertinent, urgent questions:
❚ How much longer will Manning be a Giant?
❚ How much longer will Manning even play in the NFL?
Only Manning himself can answer both questions — because the Giants aren’t going to outright release him before season’s end and because he has a notrade clause in his contract; and because retirement, of course, is entirely up to him.
Whether the Giants attempt to find a trade partner that is amenable to Manning by the Oct. 29 deadline will be observed closely.
With so many other teams now without the quarterback they started or intended to start the season with for part or all of the remaining schedule — such as Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, New Orleans and maybe Carolina — it’s indeed quite possible Manning gets dealt to a destination favourable to him long before Halloween.
Postmedia News JoKryk@postmedia.com Twitter.com/JohnKryk