Even though Eli Manning is expected to start Sunday at MetLife Stadium against the Cowboys — playing for the first time since his controversial benching…
Even though Eli Manning is expected to start Sunday at MetLife Stadium against the Cowboys — playing for the first time since his controversial benching last weekend, and the subsequent firings of coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese — the quarterback’s role for the rest of the season remains unclear.
The future is even more uncertain.
Will Eli want to stay with the only team he’s every known? Does the soon-to-be 37-year-old want to join a championship contender in the final chapter of his career, like his brother, Peyton?
His father, Archie Manning, doesn’t know. And Eli doesn’t, either, apparently.
“I don’t think he has formed any opinion about next year,” Archie said Tuesday in Manhattan, prior to watching Peyton join him in the College Football Hall of Fame. “Eli was maybe just a little heartbroken [about being benched], but he wasn’t mad at anybody. He certainly isn’t making any plans for next year. You can’t do that. We’ve got games left.
“I know this, and I’ve just briefly visited with him, he doesn’t have some dead set plan for next year. You can’t. There’s too many unknown things out there, so why make a plan right now when there’s so many decisions to be made? Just finish, do your job the next four weeks and everything will shake out.”
Despite the poorly handled plan that sent Eli to the sideline for the first time since he was a rookie — in Sunday’s loss at Oakland — and the disastrous results from a team with Super Bowl aspirations, Archie didn’t agree with ownership’s decision to terminate McAdoo and Reese.
With only one team in the NFL holding a worse record than the Giants (2-10), the team’s new front office will be in position to draft a franchise quarterback in the beginning of the first round for the first time since acquiring Manning, the No. 1 pick, at the 2004 Draft.
Should the Giants select USC’s Sam Darnold or UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Archie said it wouldn’t effect whether Eli would want to stay with the team.
“I know Eli loves New York,” Archie said. “I know he loves playing for the Giants. He knows he’s 37. He knows what his ability is, what he thinks it is, and there’s just no sense in forming some dead solid plan for next year when he doesn’t know what his options are gonna be.
“I don’t think any of his thoughts are on that right now. It’s hard out there every Sunday. I think his focus is just trying to play a game Sunday.”
After compiling the second-longest consecutive games played streak in NFL history (210), Eli also knows he could be benched again soon, so the Giants can evaluate third-round rookie Davis Webb, who has yet to see a snap this season.
“He understands they’ve got a young guy there they need to see,” Archie said. “Eli’s a team guy and he’ll do what the Giants ask him to do.”
