Good Guy Eli Giving Giants A Discount With 4-Year/$84M Extension

#Giants & Eli Manning agree in principle to a 4-year, $84M contract, per source. He’ll sign it today after meeting with John Mara last night

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 11, 2015

Well so much for those reports of Eli Manning demanding to be the NFL’s highest paid player (which he deserved to be). Instead, Good Guy Eli is apparently letting Big Blue extend him for 4 years at the bargain price of just $21M/year. The $84M deal, which will reportedly include $65M guaranteed & ensures Eli stays a Giant until the end, is a little sweeter than Philip Rivers’ & a couple mil behind Big Ben’s. Say what you want about #10 & the G-Men, but keeping their QB was a no-brainer. Overrated or not, he’ll provide a couple more years of high-level stability at a position that’s been producing less sure-fire talent in recent drafts. Granted, they’ve got problems at a slew of other positions on the field but QB won’t be added to the list.
This is the one bit of good news in an otherwise scary preseason for Giants fans. They’ve looked bad regardless of the bodies on the field. Cruz hasn’t practiced in 3 weeks now with a calf injury & could miss more than just the opener in Dallas. JPP got everyone’s hopes up with talk that he was ready to play almost immediately – that was until the Giants got a look at his hand and laughed him back to Florida. Field general Jon Beason won’t play either on Sunday, leaving a defense that’s barely NFL-caliber on paper with the task of stopping the Cowboys. Rookies Ereck Flowers & Landon Collins are being counted on to peak immediately if the G-Men plan to surprise in the NFC East, but the team doesn’t sound ready to do so. Prince Amukamara wasn’t confident they’re ready 10 days ago. Tom Coughlin just told everyone to “buckle your seatbelts. Because whether you’re ready or whether you’re not ready, it’s starting Sunday night.” Confidence isn’t exactly brewing to come out firing & improve on last year’s 6-10 finish.
An opening night win for the first time in 5 seasons will be a big step in changing that – especially over the Cowboys. It’ll take a lot of pressure off a team Prince could see “everyone’s butthole getting tight” if they get off to another bad start. Everyone’s expecting Romo & Co. to romp on a national stage, so pulling off the upset in enemy territory is the only way to set the season’s tone. If that’s gonna happen, it’ll have to be in large part thanks to their new $84 million man.