Coming into the season, they were Super Bowl favorites for some, but after 12 games from the New York Giants, they find themselves competing for the No. 1 overall pick of next year's draft. The team and their fans have endured an atrocious season and it only got worse after Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese put franchise quarterback Eli Manning on the bench against the Oakland Raiders on December 3. It provoked people to begin asking the question: What were they thinking?
Why Geno?
Deeper examination of the decision to start former New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith over Manning raises more questions the more you look into it.
Sure, benching Eli, the two-time Super Bowl champion and face of your franchise, wasn't the best course of action to follow when you're an injury-riddled team that has only put him in the position to fail with a lack of talent around him, but, if, as a coach, you still find this move necessary, then why did you choose Geno?
With Geno Smith, you already know what you are going to get. He's a turnover-heavy quarterback that can possibly lead a team like the Minnesota Vikings or Jacksonville Jaguars to the playoffs, where he could be carried by the talent on his team, but overall he can't be leaned on as a leader for a franchise. Maybe the Giants wanted to give him a chance for redemption, but it has been quite obvious that he is not the direction that they want to go in.
We were all aware that Smith would not be the 2018 Giants starter, so the decision to move on to him over Manning or another option gave the Giants more than enough reason to fire McAdoo and Reese this week. When you botch a quarterback situation worse than the Cleveland Browns, who failed to file paperwork for their trade for AJ McCarron, who was assumed to be their quarterback moving forward, then it tells you something of how poor of a decision you made.
The decision that I was shocked they didn't make was to go to rookie quarterback Davis Webb. He is still an unknown factor that could possibly be a future answer for this franchise. Why draft a quarterback if you possibly have the guy on your roster already? It is still impossible to know if he'll see any playing time before the end of the season, but it is an absolute embarrassment that Smith was put under center before Webb was.
Eli was announced to be back as the starting quarterback against the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday (Dec. 10), so we know we won't see Webb in the near future at the very least.
The end of a streak
What I think was the most disappointing thing for many people while looking at this whole debacle was the end of Manning's 210-game consecutive start streak. This streak was the second-most of any quarterback in history, just behind Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre who had 297 consecutive games started. Manning has been one of, if not the most, durable quarterbacks in the league in the last decade or even in history and botching this takes away from the legacy he leaves behind.
Giants fans are sure to be out on Sunday as their team takes on their NFC East division rival Dallas Cowboys in what can be in the makings of an upset.
Trust me when I say that Giants fans will be out and louder than they have been all season now that McAdoo is off the team and they get to see their franchise quarterback back on the field, attempting to salvage what will go down as a lost season.
