Giant
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Two years ago, the Giants tried to break up with Eli Manning. It didn’t take. This time around, it will.
And so the question becomes how and when things will end, given that they have 14 games left together until Eli’s contract expires.
He could retire, but why give up the balance of a $11.5 million salary that became fully guaranteed as of Week One? The Giants could cut him but, again, why pay him the rest of his $11.5 million? Daniel Jones could get injured. He could stink. The team could continue to stink, and the draw for three December home games could be an Eli Manning farewell tour.
Keeping him will be awkward, to say the least. Eli has been the man since he replaced Kurt Warner after the first nine games of the 2004 season, with the exception of that clumsy week in 2017. Eli is now officially not the man.
Eli could be traded, if he waives his no-trade clause. But who would trade for him? Even with the Jets, Steelers, Jaguars, Colts, and Saints currently without their Week One starting quarterbacks, Eli doesn’t seem to be the answer for any of those teams. Or for any other team.
Maybe the best outcome would be a retirement coupled with partial payment of the $10.14 million he’d still be owed, if released. He’d go on the reserve/retired list, pass through waivers if he decides to return in 2019, and otherwise not be looming over the shoulder of the guy in whom the Giants entrusted their future when making him the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft.