As you surely know by now, the Giants ended the respective tenures of Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese on Monday.
Now it’s time for them to restart the tenure of Eli Manning as their starting quarterback.
Effective immediately.
The Giants cannot undo all of the mess they created in taking for granted Manning’s 14 years of impeccable service to the franchise. They cannot restart Manning’s 210-game starting streak (the second-longest by a quarterback in NFL history) that they unceremoniously ended Sunday with his benching.
It’s unknown whether the damage the Giants have done to their relationship with Manning is irreparable. Only Manning and those in his inner circle would know that for sure.
If this hasn’t already taken place, Steve Spagnuolo’s first act as interim head coach must be to tell Manning he’ll be the starting quarterback when the Giants play the Cowboys on Sunday.
There were reports soon after the Giants fired their coach and general manager that Spagnuolo is going to start Manning.
Manning, on his weekly WFAN radio spot Monday, did not confirm that, but he did say, “I hope I’m the starting quarterback. I went in [Monday]. I did speak with Coach Spags with a little bit. Obviously, it had only been 30 minutes since he had probably been told he’s head coach. But I told him I want to be the starting quarterback, I want to be out there and help us win these four games.”
If Spagnuolo, a former head coach of the Rams who’s very popular inside the Giants locker room, has designs on using these final four games as his interview for the head coaching job, then he must start Manning.
If co-owner John Mara’s public insistence that the Giants aren’t tanking these last four games for a high draft pick is sincere, then Manning must start.
No one will argue the fact that Manning gives the Giants their best chance to win. And at this point, the people who will be deciding who’ll be quarterbacking the Giants in 2018 and beyond likely are not even with the team.
There will be a time to get rookie quarterback Davis Webb into some games for a few looks, perhaps in the last week or two.
If you think this isn’t fair to backup Geno Smith, who started in Sunday’s loss to the Raiders at Oakland, you’re right. Though Smith, who lost two killer fumbles (which happens to be his MO), didn’t play particularly well, you’re absolutely right: It isn’t fair.
But being fair to Manning, who has a lot more history with the Giants than Smith (start with the two Super Bowl MVPs), is a lot more important than being fair to Smith is at the moment.
And let’s be honest: We all pretty much know what Smith is from his sample of work with the Jets. He didn’t suddenly and miraculously morph into Joe Montana when he arrived in the Giants locker room.
Unfortunately for Smith, whose career to date has been star-crossed with all of the wrong kinds of drama, he’s become collateral damage in this fiasco.
Yes, McAdoo handled the Manning benching poorly. But credit Mara for stepping to the front of the accountability train Monday.
“You ought to stop blaming Ben and Jerry,” Mara said, referring to how the Manning benching was mishandled. “If you want to blame anybody, blame me. I certainly had the power to overrule them if I wanted to, but I chose not to.”
The history behind that philosophy is the fact that Mara, like his late father, Wellington, is an old-school chain-of-command owner who prefers not to interfere with his coach and general manager. He has never been one to tell his coach which players to play or tell his GM which players to draft. Mara clearly wants Manning starting and playing. He also wants to see Webb play some.
“I’ll hope that at some point, [Webb] gets into a game,” Mara said. “But after all this losing, I’m just as focused on winning some of these games as much as anything else.’’
The shame in all of this is that Manning’s streak came to an end, and the Giants cannot undo that.
Manning insists the statistic is just another number to him. But it’s not. Those 210 consecutive games represent so much — Manning’s performance, his durability and his consistency.
You’re not likely — in this era of more physicality in the NFL resulting in more injuries as well as quick-trigger hooks from coaches under pressure to win — to see many other quarterbacks reach 210 consecutive starts.
So here’s an endorsement for Manning beginning a new starting streak Sunday. This thing should end on his terms. He’s earned that.