Giant backup plan should be Webb instead of Geno, Josh
GENO Smith or Josh Johnson? It’s enough to give you indigestion. There’s one preseason game remaining and Ben McAdoo seems to like Smith more than Johnson as the veteran backup to Eli Manning — but neither would be my choice.
I would give the job to rookie Davis Webb and keep only two QBs on the 53-man roster.
If Manning goes down, the track record of Smith and Johnson indicates the Giants season is over. Johnson is 31-years old and hasn’t played well since Jim Harbaugh was his coach at the University of San Diego. In his first nine years in the NFL, including last year with the Giants, he has played for seven teams.
He has thrown 177 passes in his career with 125 coming in 2009 with the Bucs, where he spent his first four seasons. He has not been in a game since 2012 in Cleveland or thrown a pass in a game since 2011 with the Bucs. He’s also had stops in Cincinnati, San Francisco, Indianapolis and Buffalo. If nothing else, he’s piled up frequent U-Haul points.
What can we say about Geno? His career went sideways in 2015 when teammate IK Enemkpali rearranged his face in a locker room fight over $600 one month before the season started. He lost his job by default to Ryan Fitzpatrick and couldn’t get it back when Fitz had a career year. By the time Fitz failed last year and Smth was given another chance, Smith tore his ACL in the second quarter of a late October game against the Ravens and his Jets career was over.
Smith and Johnson provide no comfort
that if Manning is injured the Giants can get by for even a week or two. Smith doesn’t take good care of The Duke — he is just a turnover waiting to happen — and Johnson is just not very good. The good news is Manning has started 199 consecutive games, the third longest streak in NFL history behind Brett Favre (297) and Peyton Manning (208).
Even so, one of the top five most important players on any team with Super Bowl aspirations is the backup quarterback. Based on what Smith and Johnson have shown in the first three weeks of the preseason, McAdoo must be losing whatever sleep he gets thinking about what’s going to happen if either is forced into a high leverage situation.
Smith is 26 and has played in enough games and had some good games for the Jets, so if it comes down to him or Johnson, he should be the choice.
Manning will not play in Thursday night’s preseason finale. Smith vs. Johnson sets up as a key roster decision with the possibility Webb can make them both expendable.
If McAdoo wants to save a roster spot and take the Huggies off the rookie, then Webb should be No. 2 and the Giants can sign a quarterback for the practice squad to handle some of the scout teams throws during the season. And really, I think there’s a better chance of Webb keeping things under control and giving the Giants’ shutdown defense a better chance to win than either the turnover-happy Smith or the journeyman Johnson.
“We’re still not in a position to say who the number two is,” McAdoo said. “Thursday night, we’re hoping it cleans itself up.”
He was asked if any of the QBs has separated himself from the competition. “No,” he said. Can Webb win the job? “Never say never,” McAdoo said.
The NFL is in an era when the top rookies start from the very first game of their first season. Last year, the Cowboys went with rookie Dak Prescott, only a fourth-round pick, after Tony Romo injured his back in the third preseason game. Prescott led the Cowboys to the NFC East title with a 13-3 record.
Webb was drafted as the eventual replacement for Manning, who is 36-years old and wants to play until he’s 40. If he makes it that far, then Webb will likely be gone before he even gets a chance to play meaningful snaps. But the Giants drafted Webb in the third round because McAdoo wanted to identify and then start grooming the likely heir to Manning.
What has he shown in the preseason? He is 10-of-20 for 87 yards with no TDs and no INTs. He still has quite a ways to go, but he can get there. Smith and Johnson have been around long enough to already know who they are and that’s not a good thing. I would feel better putting Webb in for a half if Manning sprains his ankle than I would Smith or Johnson. I think he can be trusted more to not make game-changing mistakes. He’s had an offseason and training camp to learn the system. He’s a gym rat like Manning and is surely taking advantage of all he observes and Manning teaches him.
Although Manning hasn’t lost any zip off his fastball, he’s reached the age where it can happen this year, next year or maybe not for another five years. But GM Jerry Reese needed to have a successor plan in place. The plan for Webb is not the same as it was for Ryan Nassib.
If Webb is given snaps with the first team in the final preseason game Thursday night and proves he can get the team in and out of the huddle and doesn’t act like the game is too big and too fast for him, then McAdoo should accelerate the learning process and make him the No. 2 quarterback.