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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Dan Benton

Report: Giants’ Eli Manning, Daniel Jones not in a real competition

The New York Giants will officially report for the start of training camp in less than two weeks and the expectation — or at least the narrative — is that quarterbacks Eli Manning and rookie Daniel Jones will be fully immersed in a competition to start come Week 1 of the regular season.

As Giants Wire has stated repeatedly, that is fake news.

Jordan Raanan of ESPN recently (and finally) shot down that erroneous story, reporting that there is “no real competition” between Manning and Jones, and that unless something shocking and unforeseen happens, the former will be under center when the Giants take on the Dallas Cowboys on September 8.

“If it’s going to be a competition – a real competition of who’s going to start in Week 1 – something crazy, something wild is going to have to happen. Something like maybe Eli Manning getting injured, which he hasn’t at any point in his NFL career,” Raanan said.

“I spoke to a player during minicamp several weeks back and he told me, ‘look, Daniel Jones’ arm looks great. You see why he’s a high prospect and going to be a good quarterback.’ But he’s a long ways away. He’s very far behind Eli Manning in regards to knowing the offense, being a veteran, knowing how to get everyone lined up and put everything together. So, there’s not a real competition in regards to who is going to play in Week 1. Maybe it’s just a competition of, okay, when is Daniel Jones going to be caught up?”

Who woulda thunk it?

The competition narrative is fun, it generates clicks and it sells papers, but it’s not and never has been steeped in any sort of reality. Manning is the quarterback for the 2019 Giants and will remain in that position until the team is floundering, he can no longer compete or Jones turns into the next Joe Montana.

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