Hours after the Giants abruptly ended Eli Manning’s historic tenure as starting quarterback, the 14-season veteran was back to business as usual Wednesday.
“@BobPapa_NFL & I just took a break from our radio show to grab a coffee to see only 2 @Giants players in the cafeteria. It was Eli Manning sitting next to Davis Webb mentoring him,” 2008 Super Bowl champ and Manning pal David Diehl tweeted Wednesday.
Diehl, 37, a former guard who played 11 seasons with the Giants, 10 with Manning under center, was one of several players to express their disgust Tuesday over the club’s decision to bench the two-time Super Bowl MVP after 210 consecutive regular-season starts.
“I’m absolutely speechless. I’ve watched every game & have sat through this rough @Giants season & this what you do to a man who has lead this team for 210 straight games,” Diehl, an analyst for CBS, wrote to his nearly 80,000 followers.
It’s unclear when Webb will see the field, with Geno Smith starting Sunday’s game against the Raiders. The Giants said Webb would be mixed in at some point; when could depend on Smith’s performance.
“It doesn’t affect my preparation,” Webb said Tuesday. “I get up here pretty early and I stay here pretty dang late and I always prepare like if my opportunity came tomorrow, I’d be ready and I approached it that way since the day I got here.”
Webb, selected in the third round from California, called Manning the “best teammate I’ve ever had in my life” as part of his effusive praise for the veteran.
“Today was pretty big,” Webb said Tuesday. “The way [Manning] handled himself, the way he handled himself in front of teammates, myself and Geno included, he was first class.”