The New York Giants will bench Eli Manning for Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders, ending the veteran quarterback’s streak of 210 consecutive regular-season starts that dates back to his rookie season in 2004.
Giants coach Ben McAdoo said the team will start Geno Smith, the fifth-year signal-caller who joined the team in March after four seasons with the New York Jets, adding that rookie Davis Webb could see action during the final games of a season that began with great promise but has since descended into disaster.
“Geno will start this week,” McAdoo said on Tuesday. “Over the last five games, we will take a look at Geno, and we will also give Davis an opportunity.”
Manning, who has led the Giants to a pair of Super Bowl titles, has started every game for the New Jersey-based club since 21 November 2004, when he took over for Kurt Warner for the 10th game of his rookie campaign. His streak of consecutive starts in regular-season games in second in NFL history only to Brett Favre, who started in 297 straight contests for the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings between 1992 and 2010.
On Tuesday, Manning said he was presented the option of starting on Sunday to keep the streak alive but declined.
“Coach McAdoo told me I could continue to start while Geno and Davis are given an opportunity to play,” Manning said. “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. Like I always have, I will be ready to play if and when I am needed. I will help Geno and Davis prepare to play as well as they possibly can.”
The Giants, who enter Sunday’s game firmly entrenched in the NFC East cellar with a record of 2-9, have been dogged by injuries all season long, placing 19 players on injured reserve including star wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr and Brandon Marshall.
Manning, 36, has passed for 2,411 yards including 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
“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,” the team’s general manager Jerry Reese said. “I told Eli this morning that an organization could not ask for any more in a franchise quarterback. He has been that and more. Nobody knows what the future holds, but right now, this is what we think is best for the franchise.”
