Giants coach Pat Shurmur says Eli Manning will be back in 2019
Once the New York Giants passed on Sam Darnold for Saquon Barkley in last year’s draft, they didn’t lock in Eli Manning as their quarterback for just 2018.
It became, in essence, a multi-year commitment.
While there has been some ambiguity about Manning’s future with the Giants in 2019, it never seemed like Manning was going anywhere because the Giants have no other options.
So it wasn’t a surprise when coach Pat Shurmur said at the NFL scouting combine on Wednesday that Manning will be back as New York’s starter next season.
Eli Manning will be back, Pat Shurmur says
Keep in mind, as you read Shurmur’s praise of Manning, that the Giants don’t have great options. They could draft someone with the No. 6 overall pick, but they seem to be waiting for the perfect prospect. And there’s no perfect prospect that will fall to sixth in this draft.
So 38-year-old Manning will be back, Shurmur said.
“He proved, when the players around him started playing better, that he can play at a very high level and help us win games,” Shurmur said, via Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. “Yeah, at this point, I want Eli back, and he’s back.”
The Giants seem to be eternally making it up to Manning for Ben McAdoo benching him for one game in 2017. Manning hasn’t played at a high level for a few years, yet there’s no succession plan in place.
“I think Eli can help us win games,” Shurmur said.
What will Giants do for future at QB?
The Giants will have to address the future at quarterback at some point. Maybe they like one of the prospects that falls to them at No. 6, but they didn’t like Darnold and no prospects in this class are on his level.
Manning will apparently be the Giants’ starter in 2019. If they don’t draft anyone this season, maybe they’ll be running it back with Manning in 2020. And then ... you get it. This might go on a while, even though it’s clear Manning doesn’t have much left.
We don’t know what the future holds, but Shurmur said what has been obvious for a while, and Manning has at least one more season as the Giants’ starting quarterback.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
