NFL

Manning: ‘I need to play better’

It was Eli Manning’s ankle that had him hobbling and in a boot Monday, but one couldn’t blame him if his shoulders were sore as well — worn out from shouldering the blame of a horrible season, for both himself and his Giants.

Everybody from owner John Mara and GM Jerry Reese to Manning himself acknowledged he needs to play better after the worst season of his career. And even though Reese said everybody is on notice and would be evaluated, he added Manning is still elite physically, and Mara said he’s still the face of the franchise.

“He did not have a good year. He’d be the first one to tell you that. But he had a lot of company,’’ Mara said. “With Eli, sometimes he tries to do too much. He competes so hard and has so much confidence in his ability to get the ball into certain areas that unfortunately he makes mistakes sometimes. But I still have every confidence in him. He’s the face of the franchise. We have to help him.’’

The Giants didn’t help keep him upright, the line letting him get battered and eventually hurt as he suffered a high ankle sprain in the finale. He left MetLife Stadium on crutches Sunday and addressed the media Monday with a boot on his right foot.

“I need to play better and … in certain games I didn’t play as good as I needed to win. Some games were just tough and we got outplayed, but I can definitely improve. I need to and I will,’’ said Manning, who turns 33 Friday but pointed to older brother Peyton throwing for NFL records of 55 TDs and 5,477 yards.

“That’s with Peyton having his best year of his career at 37, so I know I can get better. I can make improvements. I can play at a high level and improve my game these next years and get back to making the playoffs and winning championships.’’

Despite Manning’s career- and NFL-high 27 interceptions and lack of timing with his wideouts, Reese said he still physically looks like an elite quarterback.

“I think so, because you look at him and you see some of the things and say that’s the guy we know and love; and sometimes it’s not exactly that,’’ said Reese, adding Manning will get evaluated along with everybody but should bounce back.

“There’s been some really good quarterbacks that had some rough seasons, a high interception total and come back and been really good players. I think his brother’s had even more than that in a season before. I think Peyton’s had 28 one season. We have a lot of confidence in Eli. But he has to play better. We expect him to play better he expects himself to play better.’’

Manning — who restructured his contract in March 2012 — has two years left on his deal with cap hits of $20.4 million and $19.75 million. Mara said they’ll discuss an extension to lower the cap number if they want to be aggressive in free agency.

“I don’t think we need to do it. It’s certainly something we’re going to talk about, though. It depends on how aggressive we want to be in free agency,’’ Mara said. “But that as a long-term solution is not a good idea being too aggressive in free agency. We’re going to talk about that, though. That’s obviously one of the major decisions we have to make this year.’’