Betting On Manning Giants’ Biggest Error

ARLINGTON, Texas — The image of Dave Gettleman not making or taking a phone call while on the clock with April’s No. 2 pick should be commissioned as an oil painting and hung around the neck of this dismal Giants season.

It can go up in a display case right next to the cleats Eli Manning wore in his final season as a Giant, 2018. And a photo of Sam Darnold in his Jets uniform should just about round out the Biggest Regrets section of the metaphorical Giants’ franchise museum.

Too harsh? Too bad. It’s appalling how badly Gettleman and ownership appear to have misjudged this team’s ability, needs and trajectory in such a pivotal offseason.

Pat Shurmur is a decision-maker, too, but how many coaches’ heads will Giants fans want if this gets worse before they acknowledge the real issues: the quarterback, the offensive line and the lack of depth?

Sunday night’s measly 255 net yards of offense, a generous total propped up by garbage-time chunks, was the Giants’ lowest total since the game that led Ben McAdoo to bench Manning: last season’s Thanksgiving Night massacre in Washington, a 170-yard embarrassment.

Manning had a poor offensive line, little running game and no Odell Beckham Jr. in Washington. So what was Sunday’s excuse, with a healthy Beckham and Saquon Barkley and good protection early in the game?

Good thing the Giants traded Davis Webb, huh? Instead of having a more mobile, harder-throwing, second-year QB to perhaps replace Manning to gauge if the offense operates any more efficiently, Gettleman and Shurmur have ensured that there is no threat to Manning’s playing time like there was last season from Geno Smith.

Alex Tanney and Kyle Lauletta, with one career NFL appearance between them, are not replacing Manning this season. It’s No. 10 all the way. Interesting, right?

Manning, however, is the wrong hill to die on. And yet the Giants reacted so fiercely to last season’s backlash against Manning’s benching and their embarrassing handling of the situation that it impacted a crucial offseason and led to critical mistakes determining the franchise’s future.

Manning, 37, clearly had regressed enough last season that the Giants needed to find their quarterback of the future now if they didn’t have him already. They drafted a special talent in Barkley, no doubt, but in a draft rich with quarterbacks, they had a chance to find Manning’s successor and follow the blueprint of the Super Bowl champion Eagles and offensive juggernaut Rams: draft a good, cheap, young QB and spend more money to build depth around him.

Instead, the Giants kept the immobile and expensive Manning ($22.2 million salary cap hit) and by drafting Barkley at No. 2 took on the NFL’s sixth-highest cap hit at running back ($7.8 million). And now their offense is just as unproductive, Gettleman’s rebuilt offensive line is worse and there is no telling how far they’ve been set back in their quest to develop one day again into a championship contender.

Gettleman knew this roster severely lacked depth. Look at how he claimed an unheard-of six players off waivers after cutdown day, jettisoning players who went through camp with New York.

But on the clock in April — with a chance to trade back and still draft a QB, to bait the Jets at No. 3 perhaps into climbing once more for their coveted passer, and to add more assets and still get a good player in the top 10 — Gettleman stayed put nonetheless and drafted a non-QB, leaving the declining and immobile Manning as his great hope at QBand acquiring nothing else to build up the back end of his roster.

And Manning’s lack of mobility is a major problem, too. Look around the NFL. Quarterbacks need to buy time, sometimes just an extra halfsecond, to make plays, or to see Beckham or Sterling Shepard running free above the coverage, as happened Sunday.

Ask yourself, too: How is it that Shurmur, as Minnesota’s offensive coordinator, won the NFL’s assistant coach of the year award in 2017 with a potent Vikings offense led by backup QB Case Keenum, but on Sunday in Dallas, his offense looked inept? The Giants certainly boast quality skill position players. What’s the difference?

Two things: The mobility and playmaking ability of the quarterback, and the offensive line.

Don’t kid yourself. Next season, the Giants need a new quarterback. Manning gave you everything, Giants, fans — twice. But it’s over.