The New York Giants shocked the world when they announced that Eli Manning would be benched after starting only two games this season – the quarterback didn’t get much of a chance to prove himself this season after the team lost both opening games, with neither game being played with the top two receivers. Sterling Shepard was knocked out of week 1 about halfway through.
Sterling Shepard missed the first game of the season with a concussion and Golden Tate was suspended for both, but despite Manning not having a full offensive roster to compete with, it looks like the team is going to attempt to fix their troubles by moving on from him and starting the rookie Daniel Jones.
But is it too soon to make such a move? Jones is still adapting from playing at Duke, after all, a school which isn’t a major college football program. The transition to the NFL is going to be a large jump and good preseason performances don’t equal good performances in the regular season. If the preseason was an indication of regular season quality, after all, the Giants would be a much better team right now.
It would make sense for the Giants to keep their future investment on the bench for now rather than thrusting him right into the flames of regular season competition, but it seems that two losses have panicked the front office into making a hasty decision.
It also seems that former Giants quarterback Kurt Warner disagrees with the quick decision, based on his statements on NFL Network.
“I have go back and check — ‘who caught that ball?’ I don’t recognize that guy. Their defense isn’t playing great, giving up big plays and points across the board. I think Eli Manning is playing good enough football that if the other pieces were playing well, they would be winning,” said Warner. Warner also pointed out that the team isn’t using Saquon Barkley enough, putting more pressure on the quarterback.
“It’s not because of how Eli is playing in my opinion. He is playing decent football making a lot of good plays out there. Just doesn’t have the pieces around him right now to win football games,” Warner added.
But the decision has already been made, and whether or not it’s for the better, Giants fans will see Daniel Jones as the starter on Sunday. It’s a decision that could see Daniel Jones take over and not look back, or it could result in a terrible start to the regular season career of a player that still has a lot of adapting to do – we’ll find out the answer on Sunday, but with this being only the third week in the season, it’s hard for the benching of Manning to not seem like a very early move.