Odell Beckham Jr. for a full season paired with a healthy Victor Cruz, defenses forced to pick their poison. A more experienced Larry Donnell. A new toy to catch passes out of the backfield in Shane Vereen. A motivated Rueben Randle. A healthy Rashad Jennings. The second year in Ben McAdoo’s West Coast offense.
So the question for the gentleman quarterback of the New York Giants Wednesday was this:
“Are you expecting your best season?”
“I am,” Eli Manning told The Post. “I like the guys we have in the locker room, I like our talent, I like how everybody’s approaching this season, I’m looking forward to it.”
I said: “I mean you personally.”
“Yeah. … I feel healthy, I feel good, feel confident in the offense, so I’m excited,” Manning said.
Manning had answered questions for nearly 10 minutes at his locker when he tried to hatch an escape plan as Beckham surfaced at his locker and a media horde began to surround him. “He’s ready, he’s ready, you can leave, you can leave,” Manning cracked.
The 70 percent completion mark is back on the table and certainly more realistic than it was a year ago, when he finished at a career high 63.1 (with 30 touchdowns and 14 interceptions).
“You try to kinda set the goal I think for 70 for each game. … It doesn’t have to be for the whole season — yeah, if you have it for the whole season, that’s great, that is a goal,” Manning said.
So is under 10 interceptions.
“Yeah, single-digit interceptions, and 4-1 ratio touchdown/interception. Hey, it’s wins, it’s getting to the playoffs, that’s the real goal. It’s important to have goals if you think those things lead to more wins and to better play and to more points, and that’s what you’re trying to do, but it’s really about winning games and playing well down the stretch and in the clutch, and having those Ws.”
Vereen was often Tom Brady’s best friend out of the backfield.
“I think we got a lot of weapons, a lot of good guys who can step up and make plays for us when we need ’em to make plays,” Manning said, “and it’s good to have those options.”
Cruz is the straw that stirs the salsa.
“I’m about 80 percent there, I think it’s just a matter of continuing to build the strength for the last leg of it,” Cruz told The Post. “I’ve been running some routes for about two weeks now, and there’s been no pain, no swelling or anything like that, which are all good signs.”
Manning is 34, and leaner looking these days.
“I think he can have a dominant season,” Cruz said. “I think that with the type of offense we have, and the way that we all can click come September and all that good stuff, I think it’s gonna make for a very, very dominant type of offense where we could go and put up 28, 35 points at a clip, and really do some fun things this year.”
Of course, the reshuffled offensive line in the wake of Will Beatty’s torn pectoral muscle means that No. 1 draft Ereck Flowers moves from right tackle to left tackle alongside new left guard Justin Pugh. Throw away those Huggies!
“[Flowers is] a big, good-looking offensive lineman,” Manning said. “I hear he’s got a little mean streak to him that hasn’t come out yet.”
Flowers played the left side at Miami and is unfazed over the transition. Asked what Manning & Co. can expect from him, he said:
“A relentless player, a player who wants to win, a player they can look at and know they can go out there and go to war with.”
When offensive line coach Pat Flaherty informed the mountainous rook the day the Beatty news broke that he was now the left tackle, this was Flowers’ response: “I’m ready.”
“He doesn’t say much, he’s quiet, but you can tell he’s got a skill set about him,” Cruz said. “He’s a sponge.”
No better quarterback than Eli Manning to squeeze knowledge from.
“Just try to keep him as informed as possible, just talk everything over with him,” Manning said. “If I can give him little hints of what we might do coming up before drills, just say if I’m gonna emphasize a certain cadence or emphasize a possible check just to give him those 10 seconds to kinda think about it before it happens. But also to challenge him. Don’t tell him every answer, don’t make it easy for him. Kinda let him figure some things out, go through his growing pains and learn from the mistakes and learn being out there.
“You just gotta go through that because I’m not gonna be able to tell him every blitz or tell him everything that’s going on during the game.”
Manning will retire a Giant and remains unflustered that he has no extension yet to sign.
“I’m playing football, I’m happy,” he said, and smiled.
He expects to be even happier come September.