Giants' Timing Problem
Troy Aikman wondered aloud yesterday if QB Eli Manning enjoys unmitigated support from some of his key offensive teammates. "I think it's unfortunate that here he is, as a QB going into his 3rd season, and he's not given the opportunity to throw to his top 3 WRs throughout the offseason," Aikman said on a conference call. "I think that's a real mistake, for Jeremy Shockey, Plaxico Burress and Sinorice Moss not to be there with Eli Manning, getting some timing down. I don't think you can get that in just a mini-camp, I don't think you can get it in 4 weeks of training camp. "It takes a lot of time and a lot of repetition, and they're not getting that kind of time, and maybe that lends itself a little bit to some of the inaccuracies that Eli had last year." Aikman, the former QB and current lead football analyst on Fox, may be on to something. Although manning showed significant improvement from '04 to '05, his passing percentage remained relatively the same at 48.2 and 52.8 repectively.
| Passing Stats | |||||||||||||||||||
| YEAR | TEAM | G | CMP | ATT | PCT | YDS | AVG | TD | LNG | INT | RAT | ||||||||
| 2004 | NYG | 9 | 95 | 197 | 48.2 | 1043 | 5.3 | 6 | 52 | 9 | 55.4 | ||||||||
| 2005 | NYG | 16 | 294 | 557 | 52.8 | 3762 | 6.8 | 24 | 78 | 17 | 75.9 | ||||||||
| Career | 25 | 389 | 754 | 51.6 | 4805 | 6.4 | 30 | 78 | 26 | 70.5 | |||||||||
The offseason was filled with speculation of a rift between wide receiver Plaxico Burress and quarterback Eli Manning. Burress recently shot down that rumor, but I wouldn't be surprised if this issue resurfaces. The reason Burress went south is that Manning isn't as good as his press clippings suggest -- at least not yet. Manning's 52.8 completion percentage and 75.9 quarterback rating are evidence of that. But can you really put all the blame on him? Can we expect to see the same completion percentage numbers we've seen the past two years?
Which takes me to my question. It's clear that Eli is still not a top claliber QB - like say his brother Peyton who he faces in week one "'Ehem". Why doesn't the Giants organization have the team together throughout offseason workouts? Or have the Hurricane alumni declined a request to attend and opted to be "on campus" in Miami. Either way, managemant need to get these guys together, or they should think about holding Giants mini-camp down in Miami - this way everyone's happy. Yo Plax, pass the Don P.!
