The Manning family is unique in NFL history. Quarterback Archie Manning came out of Ole Miss and became a legend with the New Orleans Saints. His son, Peyton Manning, became one of the NFL’s greatest players prior to retiring three seasons ago after earning his second Super Bowl ring as a member of the Denver Broncos.
Peyton’s younger brother, Eli Manning, broke many of the quarterback records set by his Dad at Ole Miss. Like his brother, Peyton, Eli Manning was the first overall pick in the NFL draft and, since late 2004, has been the starting quarterback for the New York Giants. With two Super Bowl rings and two Super Bowl MVP trophies to his name, Eli Manning has enjoyed a great deal of success in his fourteen years at the helm of G-men.
He has also been incredibly inconsistent for many of those years, too. For as good as he has been during the Giants’ two Super Bowl seasons, Eli Manning has been less than stellar for many of his years in the Big Apple.
For those old enough to remember the song, Eli Manning’s quarterback play over the years reminds me of the Jerry Reed tune, “When you’re hot, you’re hot!“
The past few years and, especially in 2018, Eli Manning’s play has not been very hot.
While there is no question that the Giants’ awful offensive line has been rather offensive the past few years, Manning’s willingness to dink and dunk short passes to running backs and receivers rather than stretch the defenses downfield is making the team much easier to defend.
Not unlike brother Peyton Manning toward the end of his career, Eli Manning’s penchant to making short passes allows opposing defenses to bring their players closer to the line of scrimmage. If a defense doesn’t respect the quarterback’s ability to complete passes downfield, the defenders will bring more blitzes and apply more pressure and force the quarterback to get rid of the ball even faster to avoid being sacked.
Ironically, the 37-year old Eli Manning’s NFL quarterback rating in 2018 (#20 out of 35 listed QB’s) is statistically better than the past few years primarily due to the number of screen passes being tossed to running backs or short pass completions to tight ends and receivers of less than ten yards.
For New York Giants fans, the only rating that matters is the team’s 1-5 record of the G-Men and that the team has now gone just 4-18 since the start of the 2017 season.
The team sacked the head coach (Ben McAdoo) before the end of 2017. Using the second pick in this spring’s 2018 NFL draft, the Giants took the best running back in the draft (Saquon Barkley) with hopes that Eli Manning’s quarterback play would improve again with more help in the backfield.
After Thursday night’s embarrassing 34-13 nationally televised home loss to rival Philadelphia, the locals have seen enough.
It would not surprise me if the New York Giants sack their 14-year starting quarterback soon and try to cut a deal to send Eli Manning somewhere else for a future draft pick. Jacksonville has long been rumored to be a likely destination which could use an experienced quarterback for a championship run.
With the howls in New York City calling for his benching, Eli Manning and his family should be ready for a do-over soon, too.