ELI ON THE MONEY37
Return all set with bonus locked in
It looks like Eli’s back — again.
Eli Manning’s $5 million roster bonus for the 2019 NFL season technically now is locked in, according to a source, because he remained on the roster into Sunday. This would seem to solidify Manning’s return as starting quarterback next fall.
Manning’s bonus is due on the fifth day of the league year, per the terms of his contract, and Sunday is the fifth day of the 2019 NFL calendar.
As ESPN reported, once Saturday’s NFL business closed at 4 p.m., no more transactions were allowed the rest of the day. So that technically meant Manning would be on the roster Sunday morning to collect his bonus.
Another source indicated that Manning’s enormous direct deposit officially will hit the bank today, but the bottom line is that the franchise has made its commitment to No. 10.
Manning, 38, will return for his 16th NFL season and the 15th straight as the Giants’ presumptive Week 1 starting QB. He is a two-time Super Bowl MVP whose best years are behind him, but the organization is stubbornly determined to end his run on a positive note.
Ownership and management threw support behind Manning this offseason despite his poor play and the team’s six of seven year run out of the playoffs. The organization’s backing of Manning included trading Odell Beckham Jr., a player who publicly lamented the quarterback’s declined abilities.
In 2017, co-owner John Mara signed off on a plan of then-GM Jerry Reese and coach Ben McAdoo during a lost season to start looking at the team’s other quarterbacks.
But when Manning refused to play only the first half in Oakland on Dec. 3, Geno Smith started and played the whole game, ending Manning’s 210 consecutive games started streak.
And the embarrassment and disgrace became a Giant disaster that drew the ire of the entire fanbase and league, and eventually got Reese and McAdoo fired.
Ever since, the Giants have bent over backwards to try to undo the damage done by such a low point. New GM Dave Gettleman drafted Saquon Barkley No. 2 overall last spring to try to improve Manning’s offense, rather than selecting a QB successor such as Sam Darnold.
The Giants then went 5-11 last season in head coach Pat Shurmur’s first year with Manning under center, coming off a 3-13 season with McAdoo and interim Steve Spagnuolo coaching.
Gettleman said on Feb. 27 at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis that his dream is now to find the next Giants franchise QB and that “the Kansas City model” is their blueprint for 2019.
That would mean drafting a QB in the first round in April and sitting him for a year behind Manning, just as the Chiefs sat Patrick Mahomes behind Alex Smith in 2017. Gettleman qualified that he is looking for that QB in this year’s first round; that doesn’t mean he’ll find him.
Manning is entering the final year of his contract. He is counting $23.2 million against the Giants’ 2019 salary cap and costing them $17 million in cash: an $11.5 million base salary, the $5 million roster bonus due Monday, and a $500,000 workout bonus.
Cutting Manning would have saved the Giants $17 million against the salary cap, and they would have eaten only $6.2 million in dead money to it.
That would have been financially prudent, but this isn’t about the money. This is about Manning’s legacy, and how the Giants want this to end.