Webb now No. 2 for Big Blue
Eli Manning will not be standing at midfield after Sunday’s final episode of Nightmare In The Swamp to give an emotional goodbye speech to Big Blue Nation. That’s because Manning doesn’t know if he’s about to play his last game for the Giants or where he will be playing in 2018. He will be 37 years old next week, but he’s not ready to retire and his first choice is to continue playing for the Giants.
“I want to play and feel like I can still play at a high level,” he said Wednesday. The ideal situation for the Giants: Eli The Babysitter. Prof. Manning Will Manning agree to play the Kurt Warner role for Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen just as Warner, who made the Hall of Fame this year, did for Manning in his rookie year in 2004? Warner won the job in training camp, got the Giants off to a 5-2 start, but Tom Coughlin benched him after back-to-back losses and inserted Manning into the starting lineup in the 10th game.
Manning lost his first six starts before a lastsecond victory over the Cowboys in the final game. Warner had been cut by the Rams and was looking for a one-and-done situation to restore his reputation to put him in position to get a starting job in 2005.
Warner wanted to continue playing when Coughlin benched him, but he never complained. He sat in front of his locker during down time and read the Bible. He signed to start for the Cardinals the next year. Can Manning accept that role? “I don’t know,” he told the Daily News. “I haven’t thought about situations right now.”
Would he rather go somewhere else or take his chance playing Warner and trying to hold his job longer than nine games? “I don’t know yet,” he said. I’m not sure it’s in him to hold space until the young guy is ready. Remember, the Giants wanted Kerry Collins to stick around and babysit Manning his rookie year, and he responded by asking to be cut. The Giants obliged and Collins signed with the Raiders and Warner signed with Giants.
Mentoring is easy. Manning has done that all season with nonthreatening rookie Davis Webb, who jumped up to No. 2 on the depth chart Wednesday. Babysitting until the rookie is ready to handle the job is not for everybody, especially a two-time Super Bowl MVP who believes there’s a third championship in his right arm.
Manning’s skills have deteriorated. Whether it’s the natural erosion for QBs his age other than Tom Brady or because it’s been years since he’s played with an offensive line that can protect or a running game that can make defenses creep up a little bit, the fact is Manning is no longer an elite QB.
He is prepared to compete for his job this summer, but if the situation is explained that at the first sign of trouble he’s going to be benched just like Warner was in 2004, he may not want any part of it.
Perhaps by the end of next week the Giants will have a new general manager in place, followed by a new coach. Manning’s future will be the first item on their agenda.
Dave Gettleman, the frontrunner to be the next GM, was the Giants pro personnel director for the Super Bowl teams in 2007 and 2011. He didn’t have much loyalty to old-time Panthers he inherited when he was Carolina GM from 2013 until this summer, but he may have a soft spot for Eli.
Even so, Manning now has a track record for how he responds when he’s told he is losing playing time. He kicks and screams and cries. Gettleman may not want to subject the new Giants coach to having to deal with Manning when he inevitably will have to bench him.
It may just be better to trade Manning to a team of his choice in order for him to waive his no-trade clause or just release him. John Mara has said he wants Manning back next year, but his father didn’t prevent George Young from cutting Phil Simms in 1994 and I don’t think he will force his new football administration to keep Manning if they think it’s best to move on.
Ultimately, Manning may not be given a choice. He might be told to leave. This is the first time in his career he will go into the offseason not knowing if he will be back.
“You know, I think it’s part of football and eventually you’re going to go through these situations,” Manning said. “That’s just the way it goes. Whether you think about retiring or think about changing teams and all those things that happen, everybody goes through it. I don’t know how to deal with it. Just wait and see what my options are.”
He may have to prove there is life after the Giants just like there was life after the Colts for his brother Peyton, who wrote a new ending to his career with four years in Denver, making it to two Super Bowls and winning it all in his final game.
“I’m going to wait and talk to the Giants and see what direction they want to go and what my options are and make some decisions from there,” Eli said.
He will not take one long look around the stadium Sunday even knowing there is a possibility it’s his last game as a Giant. “I’m sure I will have other opportunities to be in that stadium down the road, if it is the last one,” he said.
If this it for Manning and the Giants, two championships in 14 years is a pretty good run.
Davis Webb could finally see his first NFL snaps this Sunday.
The Giants announced on Wednesday that Webb will move ahead of Geno Smith on the depth chart and be activated as the backup quarterback this Sunday against Washington.
That does not necessarily mean he will play, though.
“Eli Manning is the starting quarterback,” interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo said. “We’re going to go in the game to beat (Washington) with Eli Manning and we’ll just take it from there.”
Webb began taking first-team reps in practice last week and continued to do so on Wednesday during the Giants’ first practice since a 23-0 loss to the Cardinals on Christmas Eve.
It appears like the Giants are preparing him to get into a game — which co-owner John Mara has said he would like to see happen before the end of the season — but Spagnuolo would not guarantee that.
“I just think the process of getting him to two,” Spagnuolo said. “If something does happen then we would have spent some time last week getting him ready and he would be the guy that would go in.”
The rookie quarterback is excited about finally getting a chance to put the uniform on Sunday but was hesitant about saying he is ready to get into a game.
“I’m not sure. I’ve never played an NFL game before. I’ve prepared very hard, I’ve taken pretty good notes from Eli and his routine and Geno’s,” he said. “Talking to (quarterbacks) coach Frank Cignetti, (former head) coach (Ben) McAdoo, coach (Mike) Sullivan, they’ve been around good quarterbacks before so I take a look at all of them and utilize it for my routine. So, I think I’m doing everything I can do to be ready but you never know until you play.”
It has been a roller-coaster season for a guy who has not suited up for a single game in the NFL. The expectation for Webb was that he would spend time developing his skills while Manning continued to play.
What the Giants did not know is that the season would spiral so out of control that they would be in prime position to draft a top- tier quarterback such as USC’s Sam Darnold or UCLA’s Josh Rosen.
Because of this, McAdoo and former GM Jerry Reese devised a plan to play and evaluate Smith and Webb before the end of the season, which Mara signed off on, but that lasted just one week before the two were fired and the plan was seemingly abandoned.