Eli Manning lost his job on Tuesday. Could Ben McAdoo be next?
Giants owner John Mara refused to guarantee the embattled coach will finish out this dismal season.
“There’s no guarantees in life,” Mara said Wednesday, while addressing the benching of two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning in favor of Geno Smith. “I made my statement on that a couple of weeks ago, but there are no guarantees in life.”
Mara reiterated that the playing-out-the-string Giants are planning to decide on the futures of McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese after the season, though he stopped short of saying the coach would complete his second season after reaching the playoffs a year ago. On Nov. 13, Mara and fellow co-owner Steve Tisch issued a statement about McAdoo, voicing their support, but also saying they would wait to make an evaluation of his performance until the season was complete.
When asked how he judges McAdoo’s performance this season, Mara said: “We’re 2-9. We’re 2-9, OK? I’m embarrassed about that. Nobody’s doing a good job.”
The Giants began this year as a Super Bowl contender and instead have been an abject disaster. They haven’t won fewer than six games in a season since 2003, when they finished 4-12 and in the NFC East basement. Two defensive players, cornerbacks Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Janoris Jenkins, were suspended for disciplinary reasons. Two unnamed players ripped McAdoo recently, saying he “has lost this team” and “throws us under the bus all the time.”The offense underperformed even when healthy and has averaged just 15.6 points per game, the third-worst mark in the NFL. The players’ effort has come into question. Reese’s failure to upgrade the offensive line has been a common complaint from an angry fan base that has seen Manning get sacked 26 times and the running game produce just three rushing touchdowns and 91.3 yards per game.
“I’m not going to address their job status,” Mara said. “We obviously have some decisions to make in the offseason.”
Mara seemed most upset about the idea the Giants are trying to lose the rest of their games to improve their draft position, a notion he vehemently shot down despite the quarterback change.
“That’s not the case. Again, we’re 2-9. We’re still going to try to win the games,” he said. “I read something somewhere about how we’re going to tank the rest of the season, and that’s complete bullsh–t. I would never allow that.
“We’re going to try to win the games. We’re just going to have to try to do it with a different guy at quarterback.”