Giants announced that the two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning will be benched for the ex-New York Jet, Geno Smith.
For the first time in 13 years, the Giants are making a change at the quarterback position, and in turn, it will snap Eli’s streak of 210 consecutive starts. This leaves him just 87 games short of Brett Favre’s record. Ben McAdoo reportedly offered Eli the chance to continue starting just to keep the streak alive, but he felt that if he was not given the opportunity to finish the games, it was pointless.
Manning would go on to say:
“That’s not what it’s about. It’s not a preseason game where you’re going to play the start to the half, what’s the next week? A quarter, a series, that’s not fair. That’s not fair to me, that’s not fair to Geno, that’s not how you play. You play to win. You’re named the starting quarterback, you think it’s your job to go win the football game. When you know you’re just going to play a little bit, I didn’t feel like that was the right way to play.”
There has been an extreme backlash from the fans about the decision to bench Manning. What a lot of fans are saying is that there are a lot of things wrong with the Giants, but the quarterback play is not even close to the main one. It seems to be a sorry excuse from the coaching staff and front office to seem like they are doing what is best for the organization, but instead are just frustrating an already frustrated fan base.
Geno Smith, who has only recorded one start since 2014, will get the chance to prove that he still has some gas in the tank. The ex-Jet has been unimpressive in the 30 games that he has started, sporting a meager 12-18 record and throwing for more interceptions then touchdowns. There is not much optimism surrounding this change at quarterback, but who knows, maybe Geno Smith can re-ignite his career.
