So here we are, 24 hours after the Giants announced that Daniel Jones will be the starter in week 3, and while I've accepted that Daniel Jones is the future of the franchise for at least the next 3 years, it just doesn't seem right that they put him in NOW. Their are many reasons why the timing of this transition is off, but these are the top 4.
1. Gentleman's Plan
Dave Gettleman spent the months leading up to the draft, and months after explaining how he felt Eli had years left in the tank and that they felt they could win now. He also explained how they have a plan in place of how this transition is going to play out. When Pat Shurmer puts Eli on the bench 2 weeks into the season, after an entire off-season of which he followed along with Gettleman's comments, he leaves nothing but confusion amongst fans and the media. Anyone whose watched the first two games can see that although Eli may not be playing like an all-star, he's at the bottom of the list of reasons they lost. This move just seems like it goes against any "plan" that was in place and appears as knee-jerk reaction by Shurmur to save his job.
2. They won a Superbowl in 2007 after starting the season 0-2.
2007 was a magical year for the Giants for a variety of reasons, but if you had asked anyone after the first two games that year if they would expect to win the super bowl, I doubt many would've confidently said yes, yet we pulled it off. So far this season, Manning's stats are strikingly similar to the start of the 2007 season, and he's doing it with back-up WRs, and against 2 of the top defenses in the league last year.
I get that starting the season 0-2 is a bad start, but its definitely not too late to turn things around considering our schedule, and make a run at the play-offs (as we did in 2007). Switching to Daniel Jones now seems like we're giving up on the season after 2 games, considering no team has ever won the super bowl, with a rookie under center, and only a handful have ever won a playoff game in the modern era.
3. Once you start Daniel Jones, you cant go back
I'm not opposed to letting Daniel Jones get some playing time, or even becoming the starter once the season is lost, but to do it this early is a mistake. Once Shurmur puts Daniel Jones in as the starter, there's no turning back to Eli as unless Jones gets injured. Lets say Daniel Jones goes in their, and plays terribly for 4 games, and is the clear cause of a few bad losses (a common occurrence for a rookie QB), does Shurmur decide to put Eli back on the field to try and save the season?
In 2004, the Giants replaced Kurt Warner with Eli in the middle of the season, and when things went wrong, they tried to give the starting job back to Warner, and he turned it down. It simply wasn't fair to the Eli at the time, and the season was lost. a similar situation arises when and if Daniel Jones starts to struggle.... are we going to try and throw Eli back in there? Would Eli be willing to start again knowing that he's destined to be benched again? If Shurmur would've just waited until at least week 6 to see if the team had any promise of a playoff birth, he could've kept Eli as the starter, or could've easily given the job over to Daniel Jones with a losing record without any of this drama.
4. Eli simply deserves better.
There's no question that Eli is the best QB in giants history, by a long shot. Since he stepped on the field, he's been nothing but a great teammate, ambassador, and franchise player. Eli has been the QB you want your son to look up to, he says and does all the right things on and off the field, he was even voted the Walter Payton Man of the Year last year. He's gracefully taken the blame for over 16 years for many losses that weren't his fault, and when it mattered most, he came in clutch with 2 of the most memorable plays in NFL history, he's been a leader when things weren't going well, and when things were going great. At the end of the day, the NFL is a business, and I understand that players get benched and cut all the time, but its bad business to bench a player who happens to be a 2-Time Superbowl MVP, Franchise QB of 16 years, and 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year. not to mention the most winning QB in Giants history.
There's no doubt that Daniel Jones is the future franchise QB of the Giants, but the timing of his arrival as QB1 has been poorly planned. All off season Gettleman and Shurmur preached about how Eli still had years left to play, and that they think the team can win now with him under center, so naturally, we get our hopes up. We come into the season with play-off intentions, and now it just seems like were being told the season is a bust after 2 losses and Gettleman and Shurmur just didn't want to admit this is what they had planned all along. I sure hope Daniel Jones is everything Shurmur and Gettleman have claimed him to be, because so far, they seem to have gone back on almost everything they've been telling us over the past 2 years.