Eli Manning Time As Giants' Starting Quarterback Should Come To An End

No, the Eli Manning time as the Giants’ starting quarterback should not and will not come to an end – at least not in the immediate future.

After a disastrous loss against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday and one of the worst performances by the two-time Super Bowl MVP — in which he barely completed 55 of his passes and surpassed the 200 yards only thanks to the incredible talent of the rookie Saquon Barkley –fans and media started to foresee Eli’s end as the franchise starting quarterback. Giants’ fans and even players don’t see a fruitful future for their team with Eli Manning as the Big Blue signal-caller. According to Jordan Raanan from ESPN, Eli’s teammates have expressed frustration with his performances. One player, reportedly, even pointed out about Manning’s inability to do anything against cover two and zone defenses. Not to mention Odell Beckham’s criticisms from last week.

There are reasons in wanting Manning’s exit or relegation to a substitute position. He is far from being the player who won the last Giants Super Bowls in 2008 and 2012. Yes, his numbers have been pretty impressive so far – his percentage of passes completed is the best of his whole career (68.7), but the 37-year-old veteran has been unable to traduce these “great” stats in wins, which is what actually matters in football. The Giants rank 24th in yards per game and 28th in points per game. Besides, they are—mathematically—already eliminated from the playoffs with a 1-5 record. They have only won four games over the last two seasons.

So, if teammates and fans don’t want Eli Manning as their starting quarterback and Giants are having a terrible season, why would I think that they will and should keep him as their starting offensive leader? There are two big, simple reasons for this.

First, the reason why the Giants will keep Manning for at least this season and, most likely, the next one, it’s simply because the team’s officials want Eli to be their quarterback. They’ve made that clear already a couple of times recently. Last season when then-coach Ben McAdoo benched Eli for Geno Smith—ending his 210-consecutive start streak—they fired him. In this year’s draft, when they had the second pick and a lot of quarterback options to land, they preferred to draft a running back, what show their intentions to keep Manning in that position. This guy is the Giants’ icon in the NFL modern era. Franchises do not move on from players who becomes the team's image so easily, and the NY head coach Pat Shurmur understands that.

After Manning’s terrible game on Thursday, when Shurmur was asked if a change at the quarterback position was under consideration, he replied that the team believes in Eli and they are not concerned about him, pointing out that none of the team did enough to beat the Eagles.

Now, regarding why The Big Blue should not replace Eli, it’s because no matter who you put as the Giants’ starting quarterback right now he would be as bad or worse than Eli this season with the offensive line that they currently have. The O-line of the Giants has been awful for the last two years. They have allowed Eli to be sacked on 8 percent of his dropbacks so far this year. Excluding the rookie guard Will Hernandez, the overall grade of the team’s offensive line so far this season has been dreadful. Especially on the right side with the guard Patrick Omameh (51.5) and tackle Chad Wheeler (43.7). Besides, the options for Manning replacement might be even more discouraging that Eli’s performances itself. The second quarterback of the Giants is Alex Tanney, a 30-year-old player who has been kicking around the NFL for four years, with only one appearance in a regular-season game in 2015. Deeper on the depth chart, there’s a fourth-rounder rookie Kyle Lauletta.

So, replacing a guy who has been in the league 15 years for an inexperienced quarterback with a quite bad offensive line, sounds like the worst idea. Even if the Giants are able to find a good quarterback in the next year's draft, it won't be that helpful until they fix their O-line problems.

Nevertheless, with Odell Beckham at the prime of his career and Saquon Barkley looking as a generational player, the New York Giants desperately need an efficient quarterback, whether it's Eli Manning or someone else.