Says Manning needs to step it up
INDIANAPOLIS — The Giants need to add talent to help Eli Manning this offseason, but Ben McAdoo made sure to clarify Wednesday that the Giants need Manning to play much better in 2017, too.
The Giants coach candidly revealed at the NFL Combine that his ongoing film review of the 2016 season revealed turnovers as his offense’s most glaring disappointment, a problem most specific to Manning, who threw 16 interceptions and fumbled seven times, losing four, accounting for 20 total.
“We all know that turning the ball over 27 times isn’t acceptable,” McAdoo said. “We’re fortunate to have the (11) wins that we had turning the ball over the way we turned the ball over. So we can’t turn the ball over that way. We need to handle the ball better. So we need to catch it better than we caught it, and we need to handle it in the pocket better. We can’t have it come out — way too many fumbles: 16 interceptions, 11 fumbles. Way too many fumbles.”
Manning’s 16 interceptions tied for fourth-most in the NFL. The Giants did not play a turnover-free game until Week 11 and played only three all season. Not surprisingly, they were 3-0 in those games. They went 11-5 and snapped a four-year playoff drought thanks to the most improved defense in the NFL.
In Manning’s defense, he did not receive consistently strong protection from his line, particularly left tackle Ereck Flowers, which is why GM Jerry Reese acknowledged on Jan. 9 that the team will “evaluate” whether Flowers needs to play a “different position.”
That is why Manning was grounding the ball into the turf in a Week 4 loss in Minnesota, for example. It was either force a play under constant pressure and risk a turnover, or throw an incompletion and see another down.
McAdoo, however, said blaming the offensive line does not tell the full story.
“I think it’s a combination. I think (the offensive line) is an easy blame. I think that’s an easy one-liner you can throw out there and think you have all the answers. I don’t necessarily agree with that,” McAdoo said. “The offensive line, they need to play better. I agree with that. (But) I think Eli needs to do a better job of playing with fast feet, and I think he needs to sit on that back foot in the pocket.
“We’re seeing a lot of man coverage, so the receivers, it’s gonna take a little time for them to get open, so everything may not be rhythmical,” the coach continued. “So (Eli) has gotta play with fast feet, he’s gotta sit on his back foot and be ready to hitch into a throw. Things aren’t always clean in this league, but you watch film of the end zones throughout the league and you’re seeing a lot of dirty pockets.”
McAdoo’s reference to dropped passes covered Odell Beckham Jr.’s and Sterling Shepard’s two drops apiece in the Giants’ 38-13 wild card loss to the Green Bay Packers. Still, his frank review of Manning and the Giants’ ball security was interesting, considering Big Blue’s task this offseason largely is to help out their two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback by adding more talent and experience around him.
The coach actually backed Flowers, even though the Giants are widely expected to seek left tackle help either through the draft (with Wisconsin’s Ryan Ramczyk, for example) or free agency (with long-time Cincinnati Bengal Andrew Whitworth) and perhaps shift Flowers, who turns 23 in April, to the right side.
“Ereck, I have a ton of confidence in Ereck,” McAdoo said. “He’s a guy that he’s all in, he’s working at it. You could make a case (based on his youth) that he could be here right now preparing to go out there and run in the combine. He’s a young player that has a lot of room to grow and we expect him to grow. I have confidence that he’s gonna grow. Where he ends up is where he ends up. Right now he’s playing left tackle like he’s always played for us, and we’ll go from there.”
Pressed on if he was declaring Flowers the starting left tackle, McAdoo backed off.
“I’m not saying. I’m saying right now it’s March 1,” he added. “So he’s an offensive lineman for the New York Giants.”
McAdoo would not answer if he is re-evaluating calling the plays himself, as he did last year when the offense regressed in his third season as play-caller but first as head coach. And that is likely the most clarity anyone will receive on