NFL Week 1: Eli Will Start Despite the Rise of 'Danny Dimes'
By: Dan Orlando
Daniel Jones has-at least-temporarily quieted his critics three-straight with impressive preseason performances.
Under typical circumstances, a sixth-overall selection in the NFL Draft with the hot hand and superior athleticism would edge out an incumbent starter who has gone 8-23 in the past two seasons.
However, the Giants have made it abundantly plain that they intend to give Eli Manning one more chance to end his New York tenure (and perhaps career) on a high-note.
There are reasons for the hesitation to hand over reigns in order to hold on to a 16-year veteran that has struggled since barely missing the playoffs in 2012.
After Manning delivered the franchise two Super Bowl wins before the close of his 8th season, years of sub-par drafting caught up with the Giants. The result was a squandering of the back-half of Manning’s prime.
A quarterback once making a case for elite status was forced to play behind basement-dwelling offensive lines for six -straight seasons, attempt to prop-up a comically bad secondary that blew multiple late-game leads in 2015 and carry an entire offense on his back before New York revived its running game in 2018 behind Saquon Barkley.
So what can Manning do behind the revitalized offensive line that is set to take the field with him on September 8th? What kind of plays can he make with one of the league’s biggest stars making the offense two-dimensional once again?
Quite honestly, the Giants don’t know. It may be too little, too late. But Manning is going to get a chance in a game that counts to show that he’s got a few laps left.
If Manning can regain some of his old form, the Giants enter 2019 with a championship-caliber QB who is armed with a plethora of in-game experience and veteran intuition.
That’s not exactly a bad spot for a team that may have all the other pieces in place that it needs to be competitive in December once again.
If the reinforcements aren’t enough to make him dangerous again? Then “Danny Dimes” won’t need to wait until 2020 to see some time under center.