When the Giants announced Eli Manning was having ankle surgery on April 10, there was a timeline of six weeks given before Manning would be able to start running again.
That would have him back on his feet ahead of the Giants’ OTAs, which start on May 28, and their mandatory minicamp in mid-June, but Manning won’t be participating in any of those activities. During his pre-draft press conference on Thursday, Giants General Manager Jerry Reese said that Manning was “going to be out of spring ball” so that he’d be ready to go for training camp.
Reese later backtracked a bit, saying Manning would “be back when he gets back,” but stressed that the team would not be pushing him to return at any point.
Manning won’t get to work with the team’s receivers on the field as long as he’s out, but, as Manning said recently, there’s plenty of work for him to do off the field in terms of learning new coordinator Ben McAdoo’s scheme so he should remain busy while rehabbing the ankle. The Giants also have plenty of quarterbacks to take snaps in his stead, even with Curtis Painter out after knee surgery. Josh Freeman, Ryan Nassib and Rusty Smith are all on the roster and set for an ample amount of work in the next couple of months.