Was Ben McAdoo Right All Along?
No. But it’s more complicated than that.
After the Thursday night debacle I started seeing the hot take that Ben McAdoo was right. First off, get outta here with that shit. Ben McAdoo sucked. The team that went to the playoffs was a pretender that squeaked by a few close wins and made the wildcard only to get exposed for the frauds they were.
He also benched Eli for Geno Smith. Not the rookie who would actually be the future, but the stopgap space filler they picked up for health insurance. He handled it in the worst way possible, by not even discussing the plan with Eli before dropping the news on everyone. He lost the locker room incredibly fast once things started going poorly last year. He looked like the greasiest meatball. His game plans sucked. His adjustments sucked. His offensive strategy was “give it to Beckham”, which worked sometimes due to pure talent. Benny McPoo was not a good coach and just because The Giants probably should have moved on last year from Eli doesn’t mean he was right. Although…he always may have been the fall guy for Mara, so that’s a possibility.
Eli is broken. I think after the Eagles game even his staunchest defenders are starting to understand the Giants need to move on. He isn’t broken like Peyton was, his is a mental break. I think he still has all the physical tools (The Panthers game looked like fairly classic Eli) to make the throws he needs. Maybe he’s lost a little zip, but that’s it. Something in his brain is broken.
Eli used to have excellent pocket presence. He was never mobile, but he knew how to step up and move around to buy that extra second like all good QBs. He used to be fearless and chuck it wherever he could to make a play. His 6-sack game against the 49ers in the NFCCG should be one of his signature games. That’s the dude we used to have. Frequently that quiet fearlessness got him into trouble because he wasn’t the brainiac Peyton was, he was honestly more like Favre in the sense that he always tried to make stuff happen.
That element of him is gone. Maybe it’s the years of being stuck behind a line he couldn’t trust. Maybe it’s learning new systems in the past few years and the unsteady coaching issues. Maybe he’s actually been hit enough times to rattle his brain or make him skittish. But that fearless Eli is gone. He still shows up occasionally, but it’s less and less and he tends to never show up if a team gets to him early. I don’t know what caused it, but after several years of this dude instead of old Eli, it’s clear he’s probably beyond fixing.
The Giants season is over and if they want to bench him for Kyle Lauletta that might show us something. Eli is done with NY and it is going to be sad as hell when they finally take him out back and shoot him, but the time is clearly coming. There are still lots wrong with the Giants, but Eli is actively contributing to it.
I know this was hard to write man, but its on the ball. After Thursday, you’re in danger of going full Browns if you dont make wholesale changes in the off season. Its more than just Eli though. Barkley has shone but its in spite of the O-Line, not because of it. The Giants cant become contenders again with just 2 good players, there has to be a mentality change, and the Sterling Shepherd thing on Thursday is indicative of how the team feels right now.
Losing to a hated divisional rival hurts, but you can walk away head held high if you think you gave your everything, and that just isnt the case with a lot of those players. The depth in key positions is non existent, and if you dont use your top 3 pick next year to draft a QB I will be utterly amazed.
The NFC East is looking like it will be a fun, close fight right to the death for the Division (I dont think on current form it gets a Wildcard) but its always at its best when all 4 teams are capable of beating each other.
It will get worse before it gets better. Just steel yourself for more disppointement next year whilst you gather draft picks. The Tank is already parked at Metlife.
Plus it’s better to let Eli finish the season as a starter if this is indeed his final one. Also the guy have been sacked 20 times in just 6 games so far, I’ll be surprised if he gets the number under 50 in the end. Also the hot take articles are cancerous.
$20 says Eli ends up in Concussion Protocol or on IR before the end of this season.
It’s the only legit reason for benching him, that’s for certain.
Read this and immediately thought about him holding a bomb pop……
Since we’re still talking frauds, where does that win put Miami? Still joint-top of the AFCE, keeping it together enough to get past Chicago – and with Osweiler at QB (who threw career highs) because Tannys was deaded in the immediate run-up to the game.
The Bears did not play good yesterday, the deseved to lose. Their pass rush got nothing and while Trubisky had a solid day their offensive line was terrible and Matt Nagy didn’t have the best play calls. I think the 90 degree weather and over confidence ruined them. I think that game showed the Bears how bad they can be rather how good the Dolphins are. The Dolphins are an average 8-8 team and they beat what should be a playoff Bears team that wasn’t playing good. Average teams usually beat playoff teams that don’t play good.
Dolphins just doing Dolphins things. Also Osweiller is terrible but I have no confidence in Tannehill’s ability to win that game after the Bears went up with 3 minutes something left.
i think this year could be the most interesting years in NFL history looking at all the random things that have been going on. For example I was watching Bengals Steelers and a big reason the Bengals lost is because their defense was losing players left and right to injuries
I’m surprised it wasn’t due to arrests.
Tough comic. But I had kinda hoped you would give your opinion on the whole thing at some point. You are absolutely right that McAdonald sucked. And you are also right about Eli being broken mentally. I think Eli can still be a good QB in the NFL. But give the guy something that atleast looks like an O-line. No chance the guy isn’t good enough to start on 3 or 4 other teams in the league right now, even if he doesn’t have much else. Hell, I bet Buffalo would love to have a QB playing at Eli’s level right now if Allen has to miss any time.
The O-Line is bad and it brings me some comfort knowing that even if we drafted Darnold or Rosen they’d still be sucking behind it. But Eli is making it worse. His reluctance to even try and just check down is exhausting and his lack of any mobility is hindering us severely because nothing has the time to develop before he turtles or checks it down. If Darnold or someone was back there, there would at least be extended plays to run.
Yeah, he’s looked rough. I almost wonder though if the offensive coordinators not doing him any favors though. It’s not like Mike Shula’s some offensive genius. Cam Newton was having the same issue in his offense (rarely any checkdown passes, every route was down field), and he had an excellent O-line and the mobility to get away. Outside of snapping it to Eli in shotgun and the occasional WR screen, I feel like they’re running an old school pro style offense, while almost all the good offenses are using more college concepts (more no huddle, short routes to the middle, more easy routes like slants outs and ins, more passes to the rb).
I just remember that 4-12 season from the Falcons where Matt Ryan was thrown into a similar situation. Garbage line, no mobility, all routes are 10-15 yards and no checkdown options.
That’s a good point too. People are usually quick to blame two people when a team looks like hot garbage: the coach (who in this case is new and still gets a pass…for now) and the QB. My belief isn’t that Eli is good anymore. I just don’t think he’s bad. The Giants aren’t 1-5 because of him. They are 1-5 because they have a lot of problems, whether it be players, playbook, or whatever. Mara calling out OBJ today to basically shut up and play is pretty much a shot to everyone on the team to do their jobs and not cause drama.
I don’t know man. I think Eli is done. It seems like he is struggling to ID coverage and find the open man down field even if he has time to sit in the pocket. Either that or he is questioning his own arm strength and/or accuracy because against the Eagles he was throwing passes like a man with no confidence in his abilities. When he wasn’t checking the ball down or throwing screens, his passes where off the mark and shaky. For a majority of the night when he wasn’t checking it down he either wasn’t throwing it into a spot where the receiver could fight for the ball, just didn’t put enough on it to to hit his receiver in stride, or a bit of both. As Dave said, he just looked broken.
If I could, I would like this comment just because of your name.
Not the same situation here but I’ll throw this out there….Derek Carr looks mostly broken this year. It’s not because he can’t still play. It’s because he’s playing on a team with a screwed up coaching staff in turmoil, a busted playbook, and that has some talent issues (Gruden wants everybody gone now I think). Just a couple of seasons ago, Carr was a franchise caliber QB with a bright future and was more than capable of leading a team to the playoffs. Now……he looks like he is lost, scared, and has no confidence.
I know he’s younger than Eli and that makes a big difference long term, but just looking at this season only, the situations share at least some faint similarities. Both have new coaching staffs. Eli is on his 3rd coach in what, 4 seasons? As an older player, especially one that had a good relationship with Coughlin, that will affect him. I think Eli is done….as a Giant. Then 1, maybe 2 more years in the league elsewhere as a semi-competent borderline starter, like what the Giants envisioned Warner to be when they drafted Eli. Who knows, maybe he’ll end his career in San Di…..I mean, Los Angeles with the Chargers or something. Stranger things have happened.
It’ll be funny if Eli leads the Chargers to a SB win with Rivers in the IR in their final years. It can add a twist to the ringless Rivers series.
The sad thing is that it may have been too late to rebuild the o-line at this point. Eli has few years left at best and the line takes time to rebuild, they should have done this years ago and blew that. They have wasted Eli’s last several seasons.
As a lifelong Giants fan that comic description rang sad but true 🙁
What would have made this truly classic is if the guy in the car was Kaep
jfc
The O-Line is a series of wet noodles, and I dont even mean the nice thick ones, or the ones from Swimming Pools. It couldnt hold back an angry Daschund and thats where changes need to be focussed even before looking at replacing Eli. Otherwise as above, the next guy, and the next guy, just gets flatted 10 times a game and ends up on IR.
I’m surprised he didn’t have the Mariota game so far.
What if McAdoo was right about… everything!?
McAdoo would only be right about things if what he said was “I am the worst Headcoach in the living memory of this franchise”.
Though Pat Shurmur is pushing him hard for that title so far this year.
In the alternate universe where Macadoo where was right about everything, EVERYONE is sporting a slick back hairdue with a goatee, and it’s now impossible to distinguish pedophiles from normal people :-O.
Like what if he’s cursed to always be right, but with some monkey’s paw wrongness to it? Not that we had anything to do with it…
McCadoodoo replaced Eli with a Geno Smith, but je got the wrong Geno. Arena Bowl 31 MYP Geno Smith the GODDAMN LINEBACKER needs his chance to shine. #ArvillNelsonFor2019GiantsStopgapQB
Also, Eli’s final ride will be backing up Blake Bortles next season so he can reunite with Tom Coughlin in 2019
Eli’s career QB rating of 84 indicates that he was never truly great. Sorry.
With most of them being in his first 5 seasons and 2013 where his rating was below 80. Plus he spend most of his career under Gilbride’s high risk passing system that can lead to turnovers if things goes wrong, not many QBs can make it work often. It’s something to think about at the very least.