New York Giants: Ben McAdoo failed Eli Manning

Former New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo will forever be remembered for failing quarterback Eli Manning during his Big Blue tenure.

New York Giants co-owner John Mara directly told fans to blame him regarding the debacle that was now-former head coach Ben McAdoo sitting quarterback Eli Manning for Geno Smith ahead of last Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders. That’s commendable, in that Mara showed leadership in stepping in front of the runaway train of negative fan reaction following Manning’s benching and not throwing McAdoo, who no longer has any relationship with the Giants, under a figurative bus.

It’s possible, maybe even a guarantee, we’ll never know exactly what happened between McAdoo, Mara, fired general manager Jerry Reese and Manning. You don’t have to be an insider to realize Mara was either displeased with McAdoo telling Manning that Smith was going to play versus the Raiders regardless of how well or how poorly the two-time Super Bowl MVP performed during the first half of that contest, or that he was legitimately shocked by the fan backlash following the announcement Smith would start in Oakland.

What’s done is done. Manning’s streak of 210 consecutive starts is finished, Smith, who always should’ve seen some playing time during the closing portions of this lost season, albeit under different circumstances, failed to impress, and the key cards belonging to both McAdoo and Reese no longer work at Giants’ facilities. McAdoo’s legacy as a man partly responsible for wasting at least one of Manning’s last seasons with the franchise and in the NFL, in general, is now set in stone.

Reese, not McAdoo, ignored the team’s deficiencies on the offensive line and hung Manning out to dry by doing so, but all should remember ownership grabbed McAdoo to serve as offensive coordinator back in 2014 to help catapult Manning and teammates back to a championship-level. That never happened. As has been pointed by numerous outlets over the past few weeks, the Giants failed to score 30 points even once under the rule of who was advertised to be an offensive guru.

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McAdoo and his staff worked with Manning on having a quicker release, a necessary evil for a signal-caller with limited mobility forced to play behind a sieve-like line. How else did McAdoo assist Manning and an offense filled with young playmakers? He leaned on superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. throughout the 2016 campaign, and Beckham responded by saving no fewer than four games for the Giants. McAdoo inherited Manning and Beckham, just as he inherited Aaron Rodgers while with the Green Bay Packers. They made him better rather than the opposite.

New York’s offensive line is admittedly terrible, but Rodgers once managed to carry the Packers all the way to a championship playing behind a lackluster front. McAdoo’s inability to adapt to his surroundings handcuffed Manning a year ago, and it helped sink the team’s title hopes even before Beckham, veteran Brandon Marshall, and Sterling Shepard, among others, were sidelined because of injuries this year.

It can’t be ignored the football fates betrayed McAdoo by taking his best weapons away through a long list of injuries. The perception, fair or not, is that McAdoo was fired for reasons that go beyond New York’s record, regardless of what Mara or anybody else associated with the club say about the matter. McAdoo dared suggest Smith gave him a better chance to win than Manning, leaving one to wonder if moving on from Manning in 2017 was always on the coach’s mind. McAdoo demonstrated a level of arrogance only tolerated by coaches with top-tier resumes.

The writing on the wall first existed this past March when McAdoo oddly criticized Manning somewhat out of nowhere, as if to preview what was to come following Thanksgiving if the Giants faltered during the fall. Manning deserved better from his coach then, and the franchise legend who turns 37 years old in January deserved better from his coach before last Sunday’s game in Oakland.

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Fans won’t remember McAdoo for winning 11 games in his first season as a head coach at the highest level. They won’t remember he would’ve notched a playoff victory at Lambeau Field last January had his receivers managed to reel-in catchable passes during the first half of that contest. They’ll remember Manning choking back tears while speaking with reporters after he was benched. They’ll remember McAdoo repeatedly saying he needs to look at game film after every loss. They’ll remember he failed Manning, and then dared to use the two-time champion as a scapegoat.

That unforgivable sin is why McAdoo is unemployed this holiday season.