Eli Manning has taken more than his share of blindside hits during a 16-year career.
But he still is smarting from the one that came Sept. 17, when he was benched for rookie quarterback Daniel Jones after the Giants started 0-2 for the sixth time in the last seven years.
As he prepares to make his first start since then in place of the injured Jones on Monday against the Eagles, Manning told Giants’ in-house media he understood from the time Jones was drafted “if we didn’t get off to a fast start, there was a chance this would happen.”
But …
“I don’t know if I expected it to happen as early as it did,” Manning said. “You just kind of accept that role. Try to help Daniel out in any way. It’s not his fault. No reason to blame him. He’s a good kid and he works hard, and he was doing all the right things.”
Manning faded into the background during his 10-game benching — no longer joining other co-captains for the pregame coin toss, teammates for the first of two pregame warm-up periods or granting interviews.
It long was a question of how Manning, 38, would treat his successor.
Jones and coach Pat Shurmur credits Manning’s influence behind the scenes, but locking down Manning’s specific day-to-day responsibilities while earning $17.2 million this season has been tricky. Third-stringer Alex Tanney also is a help to Jones.
“You look at it like, ‘OK, well would I like to get into coaching one day?’” Manning said. “Maybe that was the mindset. I learned I don’t want to be in coaching. I don’t like it. I don’t like doing that aspect. Try to make the best of it and try to find some positive things in it, which there are.”
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