Another Giants wide receiver is weighing in on quarterback Eli Manning, but one imagines that co-owner John Mara won’t be expressing a desire to hear less from Sterling Shepard in the future.
That was Mara’s request of Odell Beckham after Beckham said he didn’t know if Manning was part of the problem with the offense in an ESPN interview. Mara made that request on Tuesday when he also defended Manning’s play during the 1-5 start to the season.
Mara said the Giants still believe in Manning, who he called a “punching bag” for critics while other players have been under less scrutiny. Shepard also addressed Manning’s status in the organization on Tuesday and stuck to a line that’s surely more to Mara’s liking.
“I have total faith in Eli,” Shepard said, via NJ.com. “I haven’t heard that once in this locker room. I haven’t [heard] that from an individual player. That’s just outside noise and stuff trying to break us apart. We’re doing a good job of keeping everything together in here. As far as in the locker room, we have total faith in him, we picked him as our starting quarterback at the beginning of the season and we’re going to ride with that.”
A report by Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com suggested that some players are expressing reservations about the veteran quarterback, but there’s little reason to think the Giants would give any thought to benching Manning at this point in the year. There are still 10 games to go, no reason to give journeyman Alex Tanney a run as the starter and no indication that fourth-round pick Kyle Lauletta would lead the team to markedly better results.