Benching Eli Manning is one of the Dumbest Moves Ever

Eli Manning's career with the Giants is over. It just isn't official yet. The Giants decided to bench Manning for their Week 13 game at Oakland and start former Jets flame out Geno Smith instead, because embattled head coach Ben McAdoo believes that Geno Smith gives his team the best chance to win. At 2-9.

I don't know what is more disturbing? The fact that Eli Manning got screwed over by the very franchise that he helped carry to two Super Bowl titles? The fact that McAdoo and GM Jerry Reese continues to show their utter incompetence? Or the fact that it sounds like John Mara and Steve Tisch signed off on Manning's benching?

Eli Manning deserved a better fate than what he got on Tuesday from the Giants, a franchise that should be indebted to him for all the work he has done over the past 14 years. No player in the history of the franchise has gone through more, and has done more than Manning has. He overcame a locker room that looked down on him when he was a rookie to becoming one of the sports great winners. And this is the thank you the Giants give him?

Nothing could be more cruel.

Sure the Giants are 2-9 and Manning has played a role in that, but this season was never his fault. Not when the talent around him is one of the worst in the National Football League. He played the last three seasons behind a patch-work offensive line that couldn't stop a nosebleed let alone pass protect. He hasn't had a decent running back behind him since Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs left town, and is without his star wide receiver, Odell Beckham Jr. In short, Eli Manning had no help this year.

Instead Tuesday's benching was a tall tell sign of a secret we all knew, McAdoo hates Eli Manning. He has ripped him publicly in the media all season, and now finally had enough after the Giants 20-10 loss the Redskins last Thursday that he decided to pull the trigger as a way to save his own hide. Unfortunately for McAdoo, he doesn't seem to realize, or care for that matter, that the fans are in Manning's corner on this one. What exactly has McAdoo done in his coaching career to warrant benching a potential Hall of Famer for one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL?

And why Geno Smith? Smith has been an underachieving failure for his entire NFL career. If the Giants were to bench Manning, wouldn't it make more sense to play the rookie, Davis Webb? Geno Smith proves nothing here. He's a free agent who has no future with the team.

And speaking of Webb, the Giants are sending the message that they do not believe in Webb either.  Which means that Jerry Reese did his best Mike Maccagnan impression last April when he waisted a third round pick on a quarterback the team doesn't believe in.

If anything this lays groundwork for the Giants to potentially draft a quarterback with next year's first round pick. Recently the Giants had scouts at the USC-UCLA game to watch both Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold. But there is a no guarantee that either player will ever match the accomplishments of Eli Manning.

In fact there is no guarantee that either will come out of college.

Rosen is rumored to be a quarterback with a strong personality issue. His teammates do not like him. And he had an injury riddled season this year.  He has a good arm, but way too many red flags. Darnold might be the most overhyped prospect in NFL history, with many comparing him to Andrew Luck after his solid effort in the Rose Bowl last year. But, Darnold has followed that up with a mediocre season where he's turned the ball over 20-plus times. Not to mention, he has shown an aversion to wanting to be drafted by the Browns, Jets and anyone who isn't good. Do the Giants want to invest in someone like that?

The Giants completely botched this. They handled Manning's departure from this team almost as badly as they handled Tom Coughlin two years ago. Remember the Giants made Coughlin announce he was retiring, when in fact we all knew he was fired. Remember the icy moment when Coughlin brushed by John Mara after his exit press conference?

Manning deserved better. He deserved to finish this season out as a starter and play, presumably his last game as a Giant against the Redskins on December 31 and ride off into the sunset. That might still happen, but it will happen under the guise of hatred and contempt between Manning, the Giants and his head coach.

If the Giants are truly done with Manning, they should just release him from his contract. They do that he'll be on the market for all of 30 seconds before someone like Tom Coughlin, who is enjoying a nice resurgence as the general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars, signs him for the stretch run. In fact, don't be surprised that the next time you see Eli Manning on the field will be in Jacksonville teal and black next August.

Thank you for the memories Eli, you deserve better.