The Giants absolutely shouldn’t bench Eli Manning

The New York Giants came into Week 6 with a 1-4 record, falling behind in the NFC East. Eli Manning’s play at the quarterback position has been less than stellar, but this team cannot afford to bench him in spite of his struggles.

By now, the New York Giants should be kicking themselves for passing up on a quarterback with the second overall pick. While Saquon Barkley has been elusive, running backs aren’t hard to find, and his elusiveness hasn’t helped him become consistent on a carry-to-carry basis.

Meanwhile, the Giants are struggling to move the ball through the air, as quarterback Eli Manning has struggled outside of one big performance against the Houston Texans in Week 3.

In Week 6, the Giants faced a must-win game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football, and he got off to an awful start against a hungry Philly defense. Manning completed just two of his first five passes for 15 yards, tossing an interception in the first quarter to Kamu Grugier-Hill. If it weren’t for one huge run from Barkley, the Giants offense would have had nothing to write home about in the first quarter of a heated rivalry game.

At 37, Manning has seen his best days behind him. Because of the Giants record and another poor TD:INT ratio, there have been members of the fanbase calling for Eli to be benched soon. The frustrations from the fans are understandable, but the fact of the matter is that the Giants cannot afford to bench him.

Even at his worst, Eli is still miles ahead of the players behind him on the depth chart. Fans always want to trick themselves into thinking that the unknown quantity behind the starter is better, but that has almost never been the case in the NFL, unless if the backup happens to be a first overall pick like Baker Mayfield.

Unfortunately, the Giants didn’t have the foresight to draft a young quarterback like Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen, who have both showed plenty of promise thus far. Instead, the players behind Manning are rookie Kyle Lauletta and Alex Tanney.

There’s no chance that Tanney ever starts under center for an NFL team. He’s most famously known as “Trick Shot” Tanney, has bounced around the league for years, and has attempted just 14 career passes.

The Giants other backup signal-caller, Lauletta, is a fourth-round rookie out of Richmond who probably isn’t ready for the step-up in competition in this league. Out of the Giants two options, he is by far the most compelling, but his college statistics against weak competition don’t exactly jump off the page. If it weren’t for his standout performance at the Senior Bowl, he wouldn’t have heard his name called in the first four rounds.

As frustrating as Eli has been to watch in 2018, he still boasts a completion percentage over 70.0% and is averaging 7.4 yards per attempt. The Giants started to get Odell Beckham Jr. more involved in recent weeks, which helped Eli. It seems like skill position players like Evan Engram, Sterling Shepard, Barkley, and Beckham needed time to get more comfortable with this offense, so Eli’s numbers could go up.

Philadelphia’s pass defense has a way of embarrassing good quarterbacks, so the Giants have to avoid being too reactionary agains them. That said, Eli will need to step up his play, because if the interceptions skyrocket at any point this season, the 37-year-old could make this an actual decision for the coaching staff. For now, though, Eli remains the Giants best option, which speaks volumes about how ill-prepared the Giants were at quarterback coming into this season.