PFT: Giants expect 2 -3 more years from Eli

If he retires at 38 or 39, so be it.

That said, rooting for a guy like Eli (the Walter Payton Award winner) is one of the things that keeps me watching football. The trend towards sloppy, high-offense, and often uncompetitive games makes them almost unwatchable. That combined with the injuries/concussions.

Personally, I'm not sure I'll be as invested in football once Eli is gone.

He's 36. People have been saying 4-5 years for 6 years. This is what we expected.

He's the iron man, but not Superman.

Eli is going to go down as arguably the all time greatest NYG. Can we just enjoy the ride from here on out? He is obviously going to decline at some point, and it *may* have already started, but that doesn't mean he isn't good, or that we can't win another SB with him.

LET'S MAKE HIM THREE-LI!

we all agree that the O needs some work. We all agree that the WRs, RBs, TEs and OL need upgrading. PRobably one player for each spot, am I right?

Isn't it fair to expect the QB to play better if even 2-4 sore spots see a dramatic upgrade?

Did JPP look like a better player in 2016 than the one from 2015? Leaving injuries and fresh legs aside, JPP had an easier go at things in 2016. Why? BEcause he had three great upgrades alongside him. In 2015 JPP was playing next to hot garbage all year long. He had only 1 sack in 9 games and likely less hurries than 2016 where he was on pace for 9-10 sacks.

It's a team game. Eli needs help. It's that simple. The Giants even admitted as much as we all can see it. Eli can't play better in 2017? Actually, logic would say he will play better in 2017.

In comment 13367481 Joey in VA said:

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He had a handful of games and drives where he looked good but his play was incredibly spotty all year long. His biggest plays were slants to Odell and by and large it appeared that McAdoo didn't hang him out to dry by asking him to do to much. That is absolutely in part to having a terrible running game and shaky OL coupled with a defense that was able to keep scores low. He was and always will be plagued by amazingly bad decision making at times, those plays where you just shake your head and wonder how a veteran QB can hiccup so badly in spots. He's always been under the radar from an athletic standpoint and has had the arm strength to make some great downfield tosses but that has dissipated noticeably. He is still a streaky QB, prone to bad streaks and to stretches where he's in total command but that command comes from where all football success comes from, and that's an overall team effort. He needs time in the pocket, he needs a running game that is at least respectable and he needs edge protection that isn't as unreliable as a...(snarky political reference)..thing that's unreliable. Without those things he will look worse as any QB would but you have to look at his play in a vacuum to be really honest. Put down the "He won 2 super bowls" pom poms for a second and watch his play, it hasn't been as good period. There are voluminous reasons for it, hopefully they will be addressed this offseason but there is no doubt that he's not able to do this as effectively as he did a few short years ago. Peyton won a SB with a crushing defense and solid rotation at RB and really had to very little beside cough up the game. Eli can do that and I believe to a higher degree because he's physically better than where Peyton was when he won that ring. Does he however have the mental makeup to realize his limitations and stick to what he does well or will he try to throw himself out of situations like he did in both of his SB triumphs? His game has to come back in a little bit and I think the coaches saw it last year and acted accordingly. He's not done, but he's inching closer to it and that's what fans need to accept and stop fighting the obvious results on the field.

You are one of the best Football posters in here..

But you can not watch last years games and not ask yourself ..
Was Eli playing with an injury? Look at the first 2 games and 1/2 of the Skins game. He is throwing it all over the field. Then watch the next two games. Minn and GB and you can see a marked difference in his play. Think about the front office scrambling for a QB? Red flags everywhere and no QB who could come off the bench. Carrying 3 QBs all season? When is the last time the Giants did that?

Carrying 3 QBs all season.

In comment 13367285 spike said:

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a fuckin proper OL for Eli to let him play 5 more seasons

This.

... have to tell you, I haven't seen much of a perceptible difference between the 2016 Eli and, for example, the 2006 Eli.

I know I'm supposed to be seeing a decline....but there's nothing too noticeable to me.

He never really had any foot speed to begin with...so there is nothing there to lose. His offensive line is shaky, he has no tight end to throw to or even a running back to catch passes out of the backfield. Hard to look good in that offense. The TD vs. INTs stat just doesn't mean a lot to me (the Matt Ryan post earlier was very instructional).

The guy stays in phenomenal shape and has avoided major injury. The one thing I have learned is that counting him out would be a catastrophic mistake but I guess some people have to learn the hard way.....

Give him a pocket, a 3rd option that can make plays, and a decent run game and he remains a QB no one wants to face in January and February.

Leading 6 game winning drives with a horribly predictable offense with 1 threat and a rookie slot guy as your only playmakers is not regression.

Missing deep throws, rushed mechanics and decision making when you know your tackles are weaknesses....not regression.

Attempted smokescreen to be coupled with visits and false hype about a QB in round 1?

but Reese brought this upon himself with the "back nine" unsolicited nonsense.

a lot of people have speculated that Eli had an injury early on affecting his play.

I think there's an element of truth to that.

the 3 QB thing, though, IMO is because of what I suspect was an undisclosed injury to Nassib. They weren't holding on to a scrub like Johnson because Eli might not be available. It didn't make sense to keep him until 'suddenly' Nassib was IRed for an injury no one knew he had.