The New York Giants where 11-5 last season and got into the playoffs as a wild card team. This season through 12 weeks the Giants are 2-9 and won’t be getting into the playoffs. Since the Giants season is more or less over they have decided that they are going to use the final 5 games of the season to evaluate their back up quarterbacks Geno Smith and rookie Davis Webb. This move means that Eli Manning’s steak of starting being the Giants starting quarterback will be coming to an end at 210. The Giants did offer Manning the opportunity to start this Sunday to keep the streak alive, but he turned the start down.
Manning hasn’t had a terrible season as he’s completing 62.5% of his passes and he’s thrown 14 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. Don’t forget that Manning doesn’t have his best receiver as Odell Beckham Jr. played in just 4 games this season due to injury. The Giants also signed Brandon Marshall to help out their passing game this past off season, but Marshall played in just 5 games due to injury. Sterling Shepard who’s now the Giants top wide receiver also missed time and has played in just 7 games this season. Rookie tight end Evan Engram is the Giants leader in receptions with 44 and receiving touchdowns with 5.
The Giants don’t have much of a running game to speak of either. They had hoped that Paul Perkins would step up and become that #1 running back, but that didn’t happen. Perkins was the starter for 4 games, but is averaging just 1.9 yards per carry this season. Wayne Gallman has been solid as a guy who can spell the starter, but it’s not clear of he can be the guy that can carry the load at running back. Orleans Darkwa has taken over as the starting running back and is the teams leading rusher with 519 yards. Darkwa has out up one 100 yard game this season. He is averaging a very good 4.6 yards per carry and is getting about 14 carries a game since becoming the starter.
Now Manning is going to get the majority of the blame for the teams struggles, but that’s how it is when you’re the quarterback. They get too much credit when a win is winning and too much blame when a team is losing. You just have to hope that before people start pointing the finger at Manning they look at the whole picture of the season.
Now the question becomes, what do the Giants do with Manning going forward. He’s signed through 2019 and it would be a big salary cap hit if the Giants just cut him. Could they trade him? Don’t forget that Manning’s former head coach Tom Coughlin is now in the front off with the Jacksonville Jaquars and while the Jaquars are doing well this season it’s clear that they’d like to move on from quarterback Blake Bortles. Remember Jacksonville took the starting job away from Bortles before the last pre-season game only to go right back to him in Week 1 when they realized that Chad Henne wasn’t the answer either. Now Jacksonville isn’t the only team that could use Manning.
He could be s fit for the other New York team the Jets. Josh McCown is having a good season for the Jets, but is only signed through this season.
Could he follow is his brother Peyton’s footsteps and finish his career with the Denver Broncos? Denver is 3-8 this season and has used three different quarterbacks.
Now you never know what the Cleveland Browns might do, but you’d have to think that Manning would be a big upgrade over whatever they’re thinking about doing at the quarterback position. It would also give DeShone Kizer a veteran to learn from for a couple of seasons.
Maybe there’s a chance that Manning could stay in the NFC East with say the Washington Redskins. The Redskins current quarterback Kurt Cousins is playing under the franchise tag for the second season in a row and the two sides don’t seem to be close to a contract agreement.
Now the San Francisco 49ers appear to have acquired a possible franchise quarterback in Jimmy Garapalo, but he’s in the last year of his contract and if the 49ers can’t re-sign him they’d need someone at quarterback. On a side note Garapalo will make his for start for San Francisco this Sunday against the Chicago Bears.
A dark horse team that could be interested in Manning might be the Arizona Cardinals. There have been rumors that 2017 could be Carson Palmer’s last season and they don’t have a young quarterback that they’re developing. A veteran like Manning could come in and fill the quarterback spot while the Cardinals look for that next guy.
It’s rare in the NFL that a quarterback of Manning’s caliber could be available. He is a two time Super Bowl winner and he was named M.V.P. in both of those Super Bowl wins. As the season winds down will have to see if the Giants find what they’re looking for in Geno Smith or Davis Webb or if maybe they’ll be looking to go back to Manning for the 2018 season.
There was a first in LeBron James’ career last night. For the first time in his 15 year career that covered 1082 games James was ejected with just about 2 minutes left to play in the 3rd quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers game against the Miami Heat.
James made a steal, but missed the lay up and like every NBA player thought he had been fouled. James argued with referee Kane Fitzgerald who accessed James a technical and ejected him.
Fitzgerald even explained his actions to reporters after the game. “It was a culmination of a couple different acts,” Fitzgerald said. “Immediately after the no-call, he turned and threw an air punch directly at me, and then he aggressively charged at me, and then he used vulgarity in my ear a few times.”
James played 28 minutes before being ejected. He scored 21 points grabbed 12 rebounds while handing out 6 assists and getting 5 steals. Even with James missing the final quarter of the game the Cavaliers picked up an 11 point win over the Heat 108-97.
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