Take a Seat, Eli
Posted: November 28th, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 93 Comments »Wow.
Giants named Geno Smith their new starting QB.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 28, 2017
This is not a joke.
Unreal. Had to read this all twice. pic.twitter.com/zD5o5eUnT9
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) November 28, 2017
There’s a lot to think about here. This is the end of an incredible streak, with Eli having started 210 straight games. That’s an amazing accomplishment. This also is the beginning of the end of an era. Eli has been the starting QB for the Giants since the middle of 2004 and led them to a pair of Super Bowls. Some call him a Hall of Famer. I disagree. Still, he provided stability and ability for a long time and helped that team win a lot of games. Eli might be overrated by some, but he’s been a good QB for a long time.
The problem is that Eli has been declining in recent years. They haven’t scored more than 28 points in a game since the 2015 season finale. Even Dak Prescott thinks that’s bad. Eli looks lost at times. He’s great when he’s got the right supporting cast, but he’s not able to take average players and make them better. He needs the right situation and the Giants haven’t had that much recently.
He needs to move on…Jacksonville, perhaps? The Giants need to move on. They want to take a look at Geno Smith and/or Davis Webb. They want to see if those players show something or if they need to make a drastic move in the offseason. Should they go throw money at Kirk Cousins or Case Keenum? Should they spend a high pick on Josh Rosen or Sam Darnold?
The Giants found fool’s gold in 2016, going 11-5. The defense played at a high level and the offense did enough to help them win. The Giants thought they could build on that, when in reality they had a lot of little things go their way. This season the breaks went against them and the team has completely fallen apart. We can clearly see the emperor’s new clothes.
The Giants have had three GMs over the last 39 years. George Young built a Super Bowl team in the 1980s. Ernie Accorsi took over from him and helped build the team that would win in the 2000s. Then Jerry Reese took over and helped them continue to have success. But things haven’t been good since the crazy 2011 title.
9-7
7-9
6-10
6-10
11-5
2-9
It will be interesting to see if the Giants completely clean house, firing the GM and coach, and moving on from Eli. They clearly are behind the other three franchises in the NFC East so it would make a lot of sense to take the long view and start building something around young talent.
The Giants are usually a conservative organization that tries to do things the right way, but this may be a case where a complete overhaul is the only right answer. We might be thinking of them as the New York Browns or the Cleveland Giants.
There is a saying in football that “it never ends well”. Donovan McNabb is awkwardly traded on Easter. Andy Reid is fired. Reggie White leaves via free agency. Derek Landri is let go, tearing at the very fabric of our society.
Eli has been the face of the Giants for a long time, but it is possible that we’ll never see him start for them again. Heck, he might never throw another pass for them if the young guys prove to be functional. That would mean Eli’s last pass would be an ugly interception in an ugly loss in an ugly season.
Eagles fans could probably live with that.
*****
Speaking of your beloved Eagles…I wrote a piece for PE.com the Bears game, focusing on the dominant defense.
This defense has a chance to be special.
.@Eagles @MrGetFlee99 plays run defense here by driving the left tackle 3 yards backwards. Penetrate first and shrink the field second #BaldyBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/lJB6gkCKFH
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 27, 2017
.@Eagles @TJernigan8 @fcoxx_91 @brandongraham55 shut down #JordanHoward yesterday and they were "nasty" doing it #BaldyBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/mzZJspFRWr
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 27, 2017
.@Eagles @TJernigan8 penetrates so quickly that he almost beats the handoff #BaldyBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/Hwof9gcc0f
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 27, 2017
_
Eli to Arizona. He has had success under one red faced blowhard. Why not another?
Can you be considered a HOF QB if u just got benched for Jawin’ Geno Smith?
Sadly, Eli is a shoe-in for the HOF as long as he doesn’t have to compete with Brady or Brees on the ballot. The HOF voters have shown with Kurt Warner and Terrell Davis that Superbowl wins are the most-important credentials for HOF worthiness.
I fear you are right, but Eli should not be in the HOF.
Right but hof is bullshit so we really shouldn’t care
Yeah I agree. But I’m still bothered that Dawk got snubbed. Pretty much case in point.
The Hall of Fame is set up to recognize the high level of talent of the individual. Whether you played for the patriots or the Browns, you should be judged on your individual numbers and intangibles. So its a shame that superbowl wins (a team accomplishment) weighs so heavily into the voting. Why should anything change for a hypothetical Miami RB HOF candidate whether or not Marino gets the laces out?
This would make sense to me if they had some prospect waiting in the wings, but for Geno Smith?? I can’t bring myself to hate Eli because he’s such a manningface so maybe this influences how I think about him, but this seems almost disrespectful by the Giants organization.
Also, Timmy J and Fletch are going to be a monster duo for us for years, crazy to think how strong our DL is for now and for the future.
I think they are taking a play from the Bills playbook. Let’s tank for a franchise QB. I think the success of Goff and Wentz have teams changing their views on mortgaging the future for a chance to draft a QB high in the draft.
As long as the Giants end up with an RGIII of Jameis Winston type of player, I’m good with that way of thinking.
Webb I could understand, barely. It makes zero sense to me to play Geno Smith. You know what you have in him.
Gotta know whether to pay him next year
Really good summary of the Jay Ajayi “drama” over carries:
https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/11/28/16709718/jay-ajayi-philly-media-clowns-rip-him-for-not-seeming-happy-eagles-win-ray-didinger-nbc-sports-bears
When everything is going this well for a team, the media can’t rely on conflict coming naturally so they need to create it. Conflict is a driving force in news as entertainment.
unfortunately, it’s easier to make up a story than actually research a story
Howie must be held accountable stories in 3, 2, 1…
The Philly media has shown over the years that they need a foil on the team or front office.
Yeah and does that make them jerks? I mean, they do need to make a living and generate traffic…. well yes, they are a bunch of schmucks (save for Sheil and a few other exceptions.
That’s not entirely accurate, as there is little research to be done on many hard news stories. The trouble here is that things are a little too rosy and a little too peachy with the team right now. That’s bad for news traffic, so they need to find something to talk about. If that includes interpreting something that happened in a way that happens to generate traffic, but isn’t entirely accurate well…. So be it.
It helps that this interpretation of his actions slots in neatly with his reputation as a malcontent in Miami. Narratives are a powerful tool for the news as entertainment business.
I don’t see how the Giants can get away with keeping Reese as the GM. The HC is probably toast, but Reese is more responsible for their mess, imo. I would not be surprised if they signed Dave Gettleman, who was in the NY front office for 13 years under Accorsi.
Not sure if the Giants would hire a 66 year old if they clean house.
Worst case scenario is they hire John DeFilippo as head coach, Joe Douglas as GM, and draft a QB with a top 3 pick.
DG may be old, but he had a major hand in building the defensive line that won them 2 SB’s. He went to Carolina and they quickly upped their DL. After showing Coughlin the door and going with new blood, and hearing the boos, they might see age as a virtue!
That’s a good point. I could see the Giants being conservative in their approach.
I don’t follow college, but from everything I’ve heard there isn’t top 15 talent coming out at QB this year.
If that’s the case, I’d love to see the Giants pick a Jake Locker at 3.
I hope you’re right. I’ve been reading that each have pretty significant deficiencies with their game.
Although, let’s be honest -Eli is pretty much a lucky Jake Locker….
As long as McAdoo is coach there is no point in even playing that 2nd game against them, our 2nd string would whoop them. Benching someone who was the face of their franchise for so long for Geno, if that team hadn’t got the memo that it’s quitting time before, now they know.
IT SAYS YOU ARE A RETARD FOR RELYING ON THIS SHITTY SITE FOR EAGLES INFO.
I have to wonder if this is some kind of last ditch gambit by Mcadoo. If Geno flourishes he could say see, I was bold in the face of adversity, keep me.
I don’t think Mcadoo would do this if he didn’t at least have approval from above. There is good chance this wasn’t his decision at all.
… in other words, Reese trying to save his job then.
ding ding ding
I think tanking orders came down from on high.
Eli to the Chiefs as Andy needs to start his frantic but im cool death spiral of quick I’m smarter than you all fixes to squeeze every year of his bloated paycheck
I’m calling Jacksonville to reunite withCoughlin
Probably far more likely … Andys HOF hopes seem to be slipping away beyond repair. ..wtf dood he do to that team so quickly ??
Andy will overpay Eli to keep him from Denver
I’ve been thinking Cousins would end up in Jacksonville, but Eli would slide right in there too.
The QB changes this offseason will be interesting.
Chiefs have their next QB, or at least they hope. They don’t need a stop-gap.
If the Giants clean house, they could go right back to Eli if they don’t get someone in the draft. New regime could call all of this a mistake.
“Derek Landri is let go, tearing at the very fabric of our society.”
Ahahahahah. Every 10th article or so, Tommy sneaks a line in like this and makes me spit my drink.
With all the theories out there, I’m surprised I haven’t seen mine yet – Bridgewater traded to the giants as the vikes go all in on keenum
Keenum is a free agent after the season. So is Bradford. Bridgewater… is fuzzy; contract is up but may have hit a CBA situation where he is not a free agent. Not sure they can trade Bridgewater without extending either Keenum or Bradford (which would also require believing in Bradford’s health).
whatamess
Bridgewater will start on Vikings next year, keenum will start somewhere else. Pat Shurmur is an OC genius
And Pat Shurmur may be Keenum’s HC. I could see both going to NY Giants and them drafting a QB with their 1st round pick.
Here’s hoping Eli replaces the newly-departed Cousins so we can see Eli face a few more times.
That would be such a redskins thing to do.
While I realize that Philipp Rivers isn’t going anywhere. I do think it would be ironic justice if Eli got traded to the Chargers for a bag of unsalted peanuts.
About that Eli Manning guy from the Giants… Nobody over here mentioned Denver as a possible destination for him? Think about it.
Eli could be the second Manning brother to walk into a situation with a tough Broncos defense along with skilled wide receivers and a couple of decent running backs. Prop their window open again for a couple more years.
It would be interesting if Eli tried to follow in his brother’s footsteps to finish his career in Denver too, and then try do a one-up on Peyton with another quick Super Bowl run.
Good call, he could help them out.
I would actually find it hilarious if Eli wins a SuperBowl with Denver.
Hey Bert: So would John Elway, I bet.
I will be satisfied with him in Denver, losing a SB or two to us.
OT: So, how do you guys think Chip’s going to do at UCLA? I’m skeptical. The game has caught up to him, and I haven’t heard of him doing anything to keep him ahead of the curve. His coaching style does seem to work better with young people than millionaires, though, so I’d guess he’d be at least okay regardless.
If he can recruit — and if he could convince people to come to Oregon, he surely can convince them to come to Los Angeles — he will probably be fine. I’m sure he will get QBs more appropriate for what he wants to do.
The NCAA lets him be much more up-tempo than the NFL does. He could still be plenty innovative. Inexplicably, his last year with the Eagles he seemed to drastically reduce the playbook, so they got really predictable — nothing like his first year or so. If he tries to do that again, sure, it will be awful — but hard to imagine he would. He won’t have an immobile QB, he won’t have a star RB who can’t run out of shotgun, and he’ll have more than 5 plays I’m sure. That last year in Philly was just excruciating, but hopefully he’ll get back to something more fun to watch.
I still think he found that he didn’t like Philly and tanked to get out. Thinking he was the greatest coach ever he could go some place like San Fran and just turn it back on and win and be fine.
NFL jobs are hard to get; no way does someone try that. I don’t believe that at all. He also got GM control here; if he had been successful he would have had increasing power etc. No, he had a QB who was immobile and recovering from knee injuries, and the NFL allowed a running QB to be nailed like Suggs did in the preseason, and at that point he seemed to remove all plays that put Bradford at risk. But he just didn’t know anything else other than his uptempo stuff, which is pure poison if the offense isn’t good, and he didn’t replace those plays with anything. And his GM moves mostly flopped. And some of the players obviously started tuning him out. Very ugly end to an interesting beginning. He got the 49ers job because nobody else would touch that situation (for good reason; he or anyone else was doomed there).
Possible. His flaming out had a lot of arms and legs to it. I just have a feeling he was arrogant enough to believe he could take any team with his system and win. And he blamed/thought it was Philly that was causing his losses/issues.
Expectations at UCLA are relatively low, PAC-10 plays a style that is accommodating to his offensive philosophy, and as long as he is able to recruit fairly well in one of best football talent pools he’ll be fine.
If Kelly has taken that Florida job, I bet he wouldn’t have made it more than 3 years.
Well he is going to have to do a better job recruiting at College than he did in the NFL.
“His coaching style does seem to work better with young people than millionaires, though, so I’d guess he’d be at least okay regardless.”
With college-sized rosters, also. When you are four deep at every position and can roll in new players every series as if they were hockey lines it makes running hurry up for 60 minutes much more feasible.
Turron Davenport objectively pointed out on Twitter that McVay makes all the playcalls from the sideline once he sees the defense and Goff does nothing.
Haha, he’s getting harassed by a legion of sensitive, salty, and shit talking Rams fans coming after him now. Saying he just doesn’t want Goff stealing attention from Wentz, that Goff has the stronger arm, to prepare for a beat down in two weeks, etc.
I had no idea Rams fans were so intense haha. Don’t want to look past the Seahawks, but can’t wait for Rams game!
Like the Vikes, I’m sure Schwartz will have the defense wait until after 15 seconds to get into defensive alignments haha.
I saw that. And Rams fans are pretty douchey. I don’t know if they’re quite ready for a Philly takeover of their stadium in two weeks.
People in L.A man.. they can pretend with the best of em!
If this is true, it will come back to haunt them (Randall Cunningham with the Vikings). I think teams will start playing around at the 14 second mark to test the theory. I’ll have to go watch a few Rams games and see if there is anything to this…
So I think we can all agree that the best possible outcome here is Geno somehow scraps together a .500 finish, hurts their draft position, and sows seeds of dissent regarding the future of the franchise.
I would prefer, he’s downright atrocious and Davis Webb is even worse, leaving the Giants with a high pick that they then waste, in Cleveland Browns fashion, by selecting the 2018 version of Mark Sanchez.
Hey, Sanchez piloted the Jets to couple AFCCG didn’t he? Don’t wish the Giants that kind of luck or they’ll back their way into a couple more Lombardis.
He Dak Prescotted his way to those championship games. They had a great running game and a top 5 defense both years.
That’s not really any different from what Eli did. The NYG are the type of franchise who would get lucky as all get out with a Sanchez-type.
They deserve whatever they get for even rostering that dude.
If we could have any player back from injury now, who would it be? Sproles, Hicks, Peters, or Sturgis?
I vote Sproles. I miss him in the return game.
Peters easily.
Peters, all day long.
Hicks or Peters. Gonna give edge to Peters. After adjusting without Hicks… I can’t be mad at them for completely shutting out that Bears run game.
I’d take Maragos before Sturgis, but Peters first if all.
I’d actually go Hicks.
Peters is an all-time great, but I think the dropoff from him to Big V (who is a functional LT) is smaller than the dropoff from Hicks to Joe Walker (should only ever get on the field as a special teamer).
https://twitter.com/ZBerm/status/935548912257073157
To be fair, they need all the help it can get.
Not having faced any 4th quarter adversity means that nobody has “figured us out”. I’d rather not have some team provide the blueprint for beating us just so we can say we did it.
2010 against the Giants comes to mind. One of the most incredible games the Eagles ever played, but the grand reemergence of Mike Vick ended on that game. He lingered for several more years and had some success, but Giants laid out the blue print to making him struggle and the Vikings perfected it the next Tuesday. Double A gap blitz and and blindside corner blitzes became something we saw weekly.
That being said, we were in a lot of close cardiac games in the beginning of the season. Giants and Chargers being pretty close. We were complaining about how the birds don’t blow people out. So that box has been checked a few times and we’ve moved on.
The one thing about the Chargers and Giants games that seems to be lost, is that Fletcher Cox was out and that seemed to really affect the Defense in the 4th Quarter.
Plus half the safetys were out with hamstring issues.
By 4th quarter adversity do you mean losing? We have been behind or tied in at least the Car and Giants game, right? SD had a big 4th qtr surge. I kind of feel as though this team has been “battle” tested. Just not every week.
These Baldinger videos are some of the coolest breakdowns on how the O line and D line have been working. That’s where the dominance starts.
“That’s where the dominance starts”
Read that in Baldy voice.
There’s a great article on the athletic by Sheil Kapadia about the Seattle match-up… Just saying
Link?
I only access it in a paid app…
But maybe this will work?
https://theathletic.com/167672/2017/11/28/upon-further-review-ten-thoughts-on-the-eagles-seahawks-matchup/
Eli Manning has a “No-Trade” Clause in his current contract. He’ll have to waive it to allow the Giants to trade him. He’ll have his say about where he ends up.
I’m thinking they’ll cut him before they trade him.
Eli has all the leverage here. Why would he help the team out by agreeing to a trade when he can tell them to pound sand and pay him his $16M salary. His mere presence on the team would be a huge distraction, especially if the team draft a QB with a top 5 pick.
In years Eli has had amazing teams around him, he has been pretty decent. Put stats aside, and the dude has at no point been top 5 to the eye test. Plaxico, Tiki, Amani, Jeremy…who held that offense back? Sure he ALMOST threw 5k yards in 2011 when he had another great supporting cast, but it was a year 3 other guys actually threw 5k yards.
Eli has been a pretty decent QB. He had one great trait for a couple years: clutch. Of course he has seemed just as likely to pull a Romo. I don’t judge guys on stats that quite possibly could be entirely chalked up to luck.
Eli is a pretty nice QB. I guess you rate him better than McNabb on the history scale because Don decided to let his ego derail his career (or was it drinking..?). Make those SB wins SB losses, and I guess he is below McNabb, with longevity being the only factor keeping it close.
**I will say his consecutive game streak is mega impressive..he has that**
To me Eli was consistently the 10th-15th best QB in the league. He was never a Top 5 but never a bottom 10.
He’s the Omar Vizquel of QB’s.
I by clutch you mean chucking the ball up in the air and letting the receiver make a miraculous catch, then yes, he has been clutch.
https://media.giphy.com/media/xUPOqAtK0Hzk4oOjYY/giphy-downsized-large.gif
I can’t imagine what’s going on in the Giants locker room right now. The players will say the right things, but they know the FO has thrown in the towel, Macadon’t and coaching staff will be fired come 1/1. And Gee No will be QB. I know they are playing for their jobs, but a major overall is coming and everyone has one foot out the door. No more Eli’s sad face to make us chuckle. Giants demise is as sudden as the Eagles rise.
This honestly makes zero sense to me.
Eli hasn’t been great this year, and is almost certainly in the twilight of his career, but they’ve done him a disservice by surrounding him with a terrible supporting cast (bad line, bad running backs, good-but-not-deep receiving corps that’s been hard hit by injuries). It’s not like the team has a young prospect they need to get a look at either (Geno Smith? Really?).
This seems like scapegoating on the part of an overmatched coach to me. Rather absurd given that McAdoo has accomplished basically nothing and Eli is arguably the best quarterback in Giants history and has done more for that franchise than anybody this side of Bill Parcells and Lawrence Taylor.
I don’t like the thought of Kirk Cousins throwing to Odell Beckham.
Meh. Cousins’ lack of arm strength would prevent Beckham from reaching his full potential. Plus Cousins is likely to get wildly overpaid meaning whatever team lands him is going to have to put an inferior supporting cast around him – if it’s the Giants, they won’t be fixing their putrid OL anytime soon with the highest paid QB/WR duo in the league.