New York Giants: Ben McAdoo still confusing on benching Eli Manning

Ben McAdoo may be at peace with benching Eli Manning, but the former New York Giants coach gave an illogical and confusing reason for the benching

The coaching era of Ben McAdoo is one that every New York Giants fans want to forget. There are even members of the team, like quarterback Eli Manning, who would probably agree even if he’s too classy to say so.

For Manning it was especially painful because the coach decided to bench the two-time Super Bowl winner late last season. In doing so, it ended his streak of 210 games started.

The move made no sense and accomplished nothing, mainly because McAdoo handled it all wrong. In typical “it wasn’t my fault” behavior, McAdoo continues to make his rounds, run his mouth and look foolish.

More from NFL Spin Zone

• Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
• Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
• Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
• Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
• Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens

His latest example of this comes from him saying he is “at peace” with how he handled the poorly handled situation. He then says he accomplished something that he not only didn’t accomplish, but that he absolutely wasn’t even trying to do:

"“I was making sure we knew what we had behind him with a high draft choice prior to a big quarterback draft. I gave him the option to start the games to keep his streak alive. I understand why he said no, and he was a true pro about it. My bedside manner hurt me that week. I’m working on that. I do think it was special how his former teammates and the fans rallied around him that week. But if there’s one thing I want fans of the Giants to know, it’s that I made this call to try to make the Giants stronger for the future. It probably got me fired, but I believe I did the right thing for the right reasons.” — McAdoo, via Pro Football Talk"

McAdoo makes no sense here. He claims he was attempting to make the Giants better in the future, but he did no such thing. That would have been the case had he played rookie Davis Webb, but McAdoo didn’t do that.

What he did do was played Geno Smith, who already proved with the New York Jets that he isn’t a starter. He showed it for several years that he cannot be relied upon and is nothing more than a backup in the NFL.

Yet McAdoo, who gets praised as a great quarterback evaluator, still thought he could be something. That was a bad move. Worse was leaving Webb on the bench, who we actually don’t know what he can provide at the pro level.

Benching Manning makes sense for only one reason, playing Webb to see if you need to use that No. 2 overall pick on a signal caller. McAdoo didn’t do that, so he didn’t make them stronger in the future.

What he did was make them confused. They had no clue what they have in Webb and they now have to hope that he or Kyle Lauletta can be the future with nothing to go on.

Next: Each team’s biggest celebrity fan

So while McAdoo wants to make himself a martyr who actually helped the team, he’s really nothing more than another coordinator who should have never been named a head coach.