Big blew it.
Eli Manning was running one of the NFL’s longest consecutive-starts streaks, getting the call as the Giants’ QB1 for 210 consecutive games. With his two miraculous Super Bowl runs, the Giants QB solidified himself as a franchise great.
Then one Tuesday afternoon, it all went kaput.
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In a lost season for the Giants under head coach Ben McAdoo, Manning was unceremoniously benched after a 2-9 start, ending his consecutive-games streak. While that didn’t come as a shock to some Giants fans, maybe the quarterback who got the call was.
Here’s how it all came to pass:
Why was Eli Manning benched for Geno Smith?
After a 2-9 start to the 2017 season and questions surrounding Eli Manning’s viability as a starting quarterback, rumors surrounding Manning’s standing as QB1 for the remainder of the season began to swirl.
Then-head coach Ben McAdoo was looking beyond the season — and perhaps looking toward job security — when he decided to make a change to Geno Smith.
“Over the last five games, we will take a look at Geno, and we will also give Davis (Webb) an opportunity,” McAdoo said about the benching.
“This is not a statement about anything other than we are 2-9, and we have to do what is best for the organization moving forward, and that means evaluating every position,” former GM Jerry Reese added.
Smith was nothing but complimentary of Manning after being named starter.
The one thing I’ll say is that, first and foremost, nothing that No. 10 has ever done can be replaced. He’s been the guy for this franchise for the past decade. He’s meant a lot to the fans, to the community, so I don’t want anything I do to ever get skewed with that, because I know it’s been a different week for a lot of people, and it will be different to see me under center rather than Eli. That’s something that I’ve been thinking about.
It was a somewhat confusing decision: While Smith sat ahead of third-round pick Webb on the depth chart throughout the 2017 season, the decision to start the former Jets passer instead of an unknown in Webb felt short-sighted. Still, Smith got the call.
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Manning was also given the option to continue the streak, however. Coaches broached the idea of Manning starting the game and then handing it over to another passer after halftime, but Manning wasn’t a fan of it.
“Coach McAdoo told me I could continue to start while Geno and Davis are given an opportunity to play,” Manning said at the time of his benching. “My feeling is that if you are going to play the other guys, play them. Starting just to keep the streak going and knowing you won’t finish the game and have a chance to win it is pointless to me, and it tarnishes the streak.”
It was a short-lived era for Smith as Giants starter: He went 21-of-34 for 212 yards and a touchdown vs. the Raiders, his lone start of the season, which was a 24-17 loss. Manning was renamed starter in the following days, and McAdoo would be fired after the Giants’ Week 14 loss to the Cowboys.
Giants co-owner John Mara expressed a bit of remorse over the way the situation went down, as well.
“Maybe the timing of it could have been a little different. I wish I could’ve been here when that was all going down,” Mara said. “What I did not expect — and this was my fault; maybe I was naive — I did not expect Eli to react by saying to go ahead and start the other guys.
“I understand, especially after speaking with him (on Wednesday). I completely understand, but that took me by surprise a bit and maybe I would’ve handled that a little differently.”
Other Manning family members weren’t too happy about the decision either.
“I remember feeling kind of sick about that, I didn’t like that,” brother Cooper said in 2021. “That did not sit well with me. But it’s the NFL, it’s a business, you learn to expect the unexpected.”
Smith wouldn’t get an opportunity to start again until the 2021 season when he filled in for an injured Russell Wilson in Seattle. He would beat the Giants in a 2022 matchup, in which he threw for 212 yards over 34 pass attempts — somewhat poetic numbers when you consider his lone Giants start.
Now, Geno is making some Giants fans wish they had stuck with him just a bit longer than just one game in 2017.
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