A Rainy Day Thought About Eli's Potential Pay Day

We’re having another rainy day here in New Jersey, so while my husband is finally painting the kitchen and Molly (my dog) is taking another one of her long afternoon siestas out in the family room, I’ve been using the opportunity to finish some football writing before I get ready to take a break.

I have finished editing the June spring football report, which comes out Monday (though for subscribers, it’s now available on the InsideFootball.com web site). I have also been hard at work on the July “Training Camp Preview,” which should be about 95% done by the time I call it a night.

As I was tweaking my lead article, “Questions Facing the Giants,” I decided to post one of the questions I raised right here on the blog because it relates to a hot topic swirling around the Giants this summer.

I’m of course talking about the fact that QB Eli Manning is about to enter the final year of his contract and that there have been numerous media reports saying that he and the Giants are “far apart” on a new deal.

If that is indeed the case, if the Giants are taking a wait-and-see approach with Manning before deciding on what he's really worth, then perhaps what I wrote for question #7 on my afore mentioned article might provide a little food for thought.

Here it is; you be the judge.

7. How much better will ELI MANNING be this year?

If Manning, who enters the final year of his contract this season, isn’t significantly better this year than in years past, then something is very wrong.

For the first time since coming to the Giants, Manning has had an entire off-season to work with all of his receivers, which is a critical component in a team’s development.

We know how in the past Manning never had Jeremy Shockey or Plaxico Burress, his top receivers, around during the off-season. Also in recent years, Amani Toomer would sometimes disappear from the off-season program for significant periods to pursue other interests.

The results for Manning were less than favorable. For starters, there were numerous miscommunications with his top receivers. How many times can you recall Manning throwing the ball one way, and either Burress or Shockey going another way? As we recall, it used to happen at least once a game

While we won’t place all the blame on the receivers – Manning has thrown a few clunkers in all this -- we believe that had he and his receivers put in the time to work together during the off-season, many of the problems they experienced on game day might not have been as consistent when things counted.

With that said, we don’t think this will be an issue this year. Manning had all of his veteran receivers in camp. He’s also had his rookie receivers with him just as soon as they were eligible to participate in the workouts, and to our knowledge, they didn’t miss a beat. What better way for the Giants front office – and Manning for that matter -- to gauge what his true value is than to see him perform under the ideal circumstances possible?

If the work done this spring doesn’t translate into better production for Manning and the Giants’ passing game, then in all honesty, he doesn’t deserve a lucrative contract that would make him the highest paid player in the game.