New York Giants: Organization failed Eli Manning

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning isn’t the long-term answer for the club, but don’t forget that front offices failed Manning over the years.

New York Giants starting quarterback Eli Manning hasn’t played well in 2018. Don’t get the matter twisted just because of the headline. While the two-time Super Bowl champion and two-time Super Bowl MVP has generated fantasy football points between the 20-yard lines and during garbage-time scenarios, he’s more looked like an old quarterback than the quarterback of old capable of routinely engineering game-winning drives.

Saving Manning, not to mention his legacy, from himself should be the objective moving forward until he and the Giants can gracefully and, as respectfully as possible, part ways.

Manning is the easy scapegoat for all that troubles the 2018 edition of the Giants because he’s the face of the franchise and CEO of the offense. It’s life in the NFL for QBs, and nobody knows about that more than the veteran who began his career in 2004 and has heard boos from home fans on more than one occasion.

As observers and commentators around the country are quick to pick apart Manning’s contributions to championship-winning sides and what he has meant to the franchise throughout the 2000s, all would do well to remember how the prior regime led by former general manager Jerry Reese repeatedly failed him.

Draft mistakes were made even before the Giants defeated Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. Sure, the Prince Amukamara selection from 2011 worked out for a period of time, but the rest of that draft was a mess. Marvin Austin over Jurrell Casey. Taking Jerrel Jernigan instead of Julius Thomas or Richard Sherman. This is only the beginning.

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Running back David Wilson, the 32nd selection of the 2012 NFL Draft, was a victim of bad luck. Nobody could have guessed that spring his career would end in August 2014 because of a neck injury. Rueben Randle’s tenure with the team was rather forgettable. Taking Jayron Hosley over Josh Norman stings (imagine Norman and Odell Beckham Jr. being teammates). Justin Bethel, a sixth-round pick, would have looked nice in a Big Blue jersey.

2013 first-round pick Justin Pugh was a solid offensive lineman when he wasn’t dealing with injury setbacks, but he signed with the Arizona Cardinals this past March. Guard Larry Warford probably would have been a better selection than defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins. Ryan Nassib, a third-round reach, isn’t in the league, and he was selected ahead of Micah Hyde, Latavius Murray and an undrafted receiver named Adam Thielen.

Give Reese and company credit for nailing the Beckham pick in 2014.

Per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, people within the organization viewed center Weston Richburg, a second-round selection, as a bust last March. Both Trai Turner and Devonta Freeman probably could have offered the Giants more than third-round choice defensive tackle Jay Bromley. Would anybody out there like to have Telvin Smith over Andre Williams today?

The Giants drafting offensive-tackle-in-name-only Ereck Flowers ninth overall in 2015 when Todd Gurley was there waiting to be picked is enough to cause New York fans to throw anything not nailed down out windows. How about the Giants taking Owa Odighizuwa, who only made headlines during his brief stint with the organization for violating the league’s performance enhancing drugs policy, over David Johnson or Kwon Alexander?

Cornerback Eli Apple, the tenth overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft once called a “cancer” by teammate Landon Collins, was shipped out of town earlier this week. Good thing Artie Burns and Keanu Neal weren’t available; oh, wait.

Sterling Shepard has been a solid No. 2 wide receiver alongside Beckham, but how much better would Michael Thomas have been for the New York team that made the playoffs only two years ago? Along with missing out on Tyreek Hill, Dak Prescott could have been worth a flier.

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In reality, it’s probably too early to deliver draft grades for the 2017 class. That’s fair, except Davis Webb, a third-round pick, is no longer with the franchise and isn’t even a backup NFL quarterback as of the typing of this sentence. C. J. Beathard probably isn’t the next Joe Montana, but he does have a win on his résumé, something that may never be said about Webb.

Maybe the biggest fear had by Giants fans following losing season after losing season was that the franchise was wasting the second half of Manning’s prime. It’s practically November 2018, and those worries have been realized. The Giants aren’t a championship organization anymore. That’s not Manning’s fault, even if it is time for him to sit.

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