Former New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo earned his exit from the club, but that doesn’t mean he was wrong about everything.
Former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo did himself few, if any, favors during the final weeks of his tenure with the club. His handling of the Eli Manning situation went about as poorly as possible. You didn’t have to work for the Giants in any capacity to understand he lost the locker room. Fans calling into sports talk radio stations literally celebrated his ouster.
Even as Manning guided the Giants to a comeback victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday evening, one couldn’t help but realize McAdoo hasn’t necessarily been proven wrong by the 2018 edition of the franchise that booted him out the door less than a year ago. These Giants may not be worse than McAdoo’s final squad, but Pat Shurmur’s roster isn’t any better.
Little new can be said or written about McAdoo benching Manning in favor of Geno Smith. Obviously, McAdoo wanted to move on from Manning, and he went with who he believed was capable of evading pass-rushers while playing behind the league’s worst offensive line instead of 2017 rookie Davis Webb. Smith flopped, and McAdoo lost his job.
McAdoo’s assessments of Manning look spot-on halfway through November. Against the 49ers, the two-time Super Bowl MVP thrice missed wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.; once when he didn’t throw the ball to an open OBJ at the goalline, once on a sadly underthrown ball down the left sideline in the fourth quarter and later that same drive when Manning didn’t see Beckham had separation streaking toward the end zone.
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Neither Manning nor his defenders could ridicule those tasked with protecting him on Monday. San Francisco defenders touched the 37-year old a handful of times and accumulated a single sack after a missed assignment.
Yes, Manning turned the clock back on the game-winning touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard, but that was only made possible by multiple defensive penalties. We can only guess what would have been had flags remained in pockets those two instances.
Injury woes sunk the 2017 Giants before Manning took a snap in Week 1 of that campaign. Barring a miracle run that’s mathematically unlikely, per the New York Times, Manning will be remembered as part of the problem rather than somebody capable of saving this roster when Shurmur inevitably relegates him to the bench in favor of rookie Kyle Lauletta. McAdoo wins that round.
History tells us McAdoo benching Manning wasn’t as unforgivable as was playing Smith over Webb. The justification at the time was that Webb wasn’t ready, and that the coach was desperate enough to try anything to inject life into his struggling offense. Webb never saw the field, and he underwhelmed so much this past summer that every team passed on him until he landed on the practice squad of the New York Jets.
Maybe McAdoo not playing Webb said more than the former coach intended. An entirely different coaching staff, one that never drafted Webb, dismissed the quarterback after four exhibition contests. What good would it have done anybody had McAdoo sent a 22-year old not ready to face NFL defenses to the slaughter for games that mattered last December?
Cornerback Eli Apple (allegedly) clashed with McAdoo and other coaches. The Giants traded Apple to the New Orleans Saints last month. Janoris Jenkins, suspended by McAdoo last fall, was reportedly shopped by the Giants ahead of this year’s trade deadline. McAdoo ripped offensive tackle Ereck Flowers when speaking with Paul Schwartz of the New York Post in July. The Giants waived Flowers in October.
The organization wasted the second half of Manning’s prime with awful draft classes. Did ownership waste McAdoo’s tenure with the Giants, one the included a postseason appearance, by choosing Manning over the former coach? That decision can’t be undone, but it should result in Shurmur being judged only after he is able to work with a quarterback of his choosing.
Why else hire a quarterback guru as coach?