It’s been a trying week for Eli Manning, but he’s not ready to walk away from the game of football.
His father suggested that might be his youngest son’s course of action after the end of the 2017 season while also saying there was no point in speculating about what the Giants quarterback will do. Manning, who turns 37 early next year, spoke for himself on the retirement topic after watching Sunday’s 24-17 loss to the Raiders.
Manning said that he plans on playing next season. He’s under contract with the Giants through next year and there’s a $5 million roster bonus due if he’s on the team on the third day of the 2018 league year.
Manning also said that he isn’t mad at anybody about the way that his benching was handled this week. Manning rejected an offer to continue starting with coach Ben McAdoo saying that the plan would be for Manning to play the first half of games before giving way to Geno Smith or Davis Webb. Co-owner John Mara later suggested his understanding was that the plan would be for Manning to start with the intent to look at other quarterbacks, but not to pull Manning from games if he was playing well.
The disconnect led to a report on Sunday that McAdoo could be fired in the next 24 hours and he’s almost certainly going to be out the door at some point in the near future. Manning’s own future will likely take some more time to sort out.