–On November 28, 2017, the Giants, who routinely send out multiple press releases on any given day during the season, put out a notice that stunned the NFL community.
The gist of the release? That long-time quarterback Eli Manning, he of 210 consecutive starts at the time, was being benched in favor of journeyman Geno Smith.
“Geno will start this week,” then head coach Ben McAdoo said in the announcement issued ahead of the team’s Week 13 game at Oakland. “Over the last five games, we will take a look at Geno, and we will also give Davis (Webb) an opportunity.”
With that press release began a wild and crazy seven-day period that not only saw the highest level of fan outrage since the period between 1963 and 1978, the period better known as the “15 years of lousy football,” it culminated in both McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese being fired the following week as the Giants’ once promising 2017 season spiraled out of control and into a 3-13 abyss.
The decision by McAdoo, who initially offered to start Manning to keep his streak alive only to be rejected by the quarterback, to turn to Smith, the one-time Jets starter instead of Webb, the team’s third-round draft pick, angered and perplexed the fan base as well as former players, many of whom came out with strong vocal support of the man they affectionately called “Easy E.”
The decision also left Giants co-owner John Mara scrambling to engage in damage control, prompting him to deliver a rare in-season press briefing to try to explain the decision while only serving to convince the world that he too was just as baffled by the move as anyone else.
Manning returned after missing one game, and Webb never played a snap.
Fast forward to 2018. The Giants, having blown their last good opportunity at a chance for a playoff berth thanks to a 25-22 loss to the Eagles in a game that they were once up 19-3, are once again facing questions about Manning and his future with the club.
His critics, as they did so last year, point to Manning’s advancing age (he’ll be 38 this January), his hefty 2019 cap figure ($22.3 million) and his declining play that has included, of late, rookie-like mistakes that have served as deep punctures in the team’s effort to win games, his most recent gaffe being an interception thrown just before the end of the first half against the Eagles that served to turn the momentum in the Eagles favor.
Smith and Webb are no longer on the roster, Smith now with the Chargers and Webb with the Jets. They’ve been replaced by Alex Tanney, a veteran journeyman and Kyle Lauletta, drafted in the fourth round this year.
But the storyline sure has a familiar ring to it, even though the head coach is now Pat Shurmur and the general manager is Dave Gettleman.
Shurmur has stuck by Manning, insisting that the two-time Super Bowl winning MVP still gives the team the best chance to win, including this weekend’s contest against the Chicago Bears defense, the fourth-best overall defense in the league through 11 games.
“You go into every week with giving your team the best opportunity to win the football game each week,” Shurmur said. “That’s how you do this thing. This isn’t player tryouts; this is do everything in your power to win the next game.”
Shurmur admittedly has a fine line he must walk. On the one hand, with the Giants still mathematically alive, he must convince a locker room that is no doubt growing more and more despondent over the losses piling up that they still have something worth fighting for.
On the other hand, Manning isn’t going to play forever. No decision will be made on whether he’ll be back next year to finish the final year of his contract or if he or the team will decide to move in another direction until after the season.
And before that decision is made, wouldn’t it make sense for the coaching staff and general manager to see Lauletta, the quarterback they picked, in some live game action?
You’d think that would be the case, yet in an almost McAdoo-ish way, Shurmur stunned the media crowd this week by reminding people to not overlook Alex Tanney, who has quietly served as the No. 2 quarterback since the start of the season.
“Why are you jumping over Tanney?” Shurmur asked with a hint of defiance in his voice. There’s my point. What you try to do is win each game and then as we go forward here, you make your decision based on winning the game, and you base your decision on putting a team on the field that gives you the best chance to win the game.
“I get that, but as a coach, I stay in the moment. We certainly have conversations about what runs parallel, the short term and the long term. There’re conversations about that that happen all the time in any organization. You’re a big corporation, your short-term gains and, ‘OK, where the hell are we going?’ I’m not foolish enough to think that doesn’t happen.”
So does that mean the 30-year-old Tanney could be the long-term solution once Manning and the Giants part?
“Who knows?” Shurmur said. “That’s where you’re getting bogged down here. Who knows?”
Shurmur further shot down the concept that getting Lauletta on the field before Tanney because the former is a draft pick is not a good enough reason to put a player out there before he’s ready.
“We drafted a lot of other players as well that are out there playing. Some are, some aren’t,” Shurmur said. “We’re just trying to put the best team on the field. Me, I understand where you’re going, and I can appreciate you have a job to do, but that’s the coach’s view.”
And if Manning can’t go, right now Shurmur feels that Tanney can give them the next best chance at winning games.
“Aside from the fact that Kyle was drafted in the fourth-round, all along (Tanney) has been our No. 2 guy. He does the things that we think can help us win a game.”
–Giants head coach Pat Shurmur denied Wednesday that he took a verbal shot at receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
The misunderstanding began on Tuesday when, during his regularly scheduled radio spot on WFAN, Shurmur, answering a question from host Mike Francesa about kicker Aldrick Rosas, raised an eyebrow or two with a response some thought was a slight at Beckham.
“He’s got the mentality of a football player,” Shurmur said of Rosas in response to Francesa’s question. “He doesn’t care if he’s had a good night sleep, doesn’t care if he’s hydrated.”
The mention of the word “hydrated” immediately sent the listening audience wondering if the head coach was taking a shot at Beckham, who has several times this year had to leave a game in progress to get an IV, the most recent of which occurring last week in a game against the Eagles in which the temperature at kickoff was a cool 56 degrees.
In his Wednesday press briefing, Shurmur sounded surprised when asked whether his comment was a shot at the team’s star receiver.
“Not at all. It’s not a shot at anybody. It’s my perception of things,” Shurmur said. “That answer had nothing to do with any other player other than to compliment the fact that (Rosas) is a tough son of a gun. And I appreciate him as a player. Whoever perceived that was way off base. I just like kickers that are actual football players. That’s what he is. He is a big, tough guy that kicks the ball well for us.”
Beckham, when asked about his hydration issues in the past, admitted that he’s not a fan of drinking plain water because of the “squishy feeling” it leaves in his stomach. He has also acknowledged that he needs to do a better job with staying hydrated during games.
BY THE NUMBERS: 115 – Number of pass targets Odell Beckham Jr. has had this season, which is the fourth most behind Julio Jones of the Falcons (125), Adam Thielen of the Vikings (124), and Antonio Brown of the Steelers (122).