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WITH ELI ABOARD, KURT'S UNNEEDED
By JAY GREENBERG
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August 17, 2004 --
ALBANY — One lousy exhibition game has been played, Kurt Warner not even playing especially lousy in it, and already Tom Coughlin is as annoyed with quarterback questions as he is with Tim Carter.
So unlike the gimpy, arguably wimpy, wideout, we're not going to "prance around," in the coach's words, waiting for him to name Thursday night's starter before chasing The Big Question out of the training room.
It is fast becoming clear a quarterback of Eli Manning's pedigree doesn't need training wheels, which makes us wonder what a quarterback with Kurt Warner's track record is doing here in the first place, seeing as the rebuilding Giants don't have much chance at first place with either guy.
Any Jon Kitna or Kurt Kittner, who work a lot cheaper, could do what the ex-Super Bowl MVP is going to get a chance to do here for a veteran coach who must dread quarterback controversy like bacteria in the team whirlpool. Especially when Manning can clean it up with that sponge he has for a mind.
"I went though rookie years with Bernie Kosar and Bert Jones, and Kosar was awfully savvy," said GM Ernie Accorsi. "But I've never seen anything like this."
That's only because Accorsi wasn't in Indianapolis in 1998, when Peyton Manning, who is not Eli, only of virtually identical intellect and makeup, was asked about his rookie trials and tribulations.
"It really hasn't been hard," Big Brother said matter-of-factly as he threw 26 touchdown passes and clipboards like the one Marvin Lewis glued into Carson Palmer's hand right out the window.
"Eli has picked up the mental part very fast," said Shawn O'Hara, the new center, yesterday. Of course Manning (7-for-13, 91 yards) was going against Kansas City's second unit, nothing like the challenge those Eagles, who have Jevon Kearse and seem to do very well when a Super Bowl berth is not immediately at stake, will present on Sept. 12.
Indeed, The Linc would be a scary spot for a rookie if this rookie scared easily, which he does not.
"To be honest, I think it gets easier in the regular season when you know what you are playing against," said O'Hara. "There are always disguises, but you know teams' tendencies and can game-plan.
"Kansas City hardly blitzed at all until Eli went in and then they brought the house, which you knew they would against a rookie."
Manning handled it, as he will in Philadelphia, at least the best way possible behind a new offensive line. The Giants, coming off a 4-12 disaster, with prancing linebackers, have the kind of team you can only hope will be coming together by November, by which time a $45 million quarterback deemed an upgrade over what was a perfectly good one had better be starting anyway or else you have wasted a year.
"So much of what I do goes beyond football," Warner said yesterday. "What's important to me is expressing my faith and sharing Jesus with people, and New York City presents opportunities for my foundation I couldn't do anywhere else.
"That's one reason I came here. The other is opportunities to start were few and far between. Other teams wanted to give young quarterbacks they had invested in a long look.
"I am going to try to prove I can still play this year. How God is going to use it, I don't know yet."
The story of Job springs to mind as an ongoing probability. If Manning isn't yet quite ready, he will be before Warner, who missed an entire year, who behind this line faces an opener that could fog his brain even more than last September's, again becomes a winning starter.
If Warner really thought that limited options presented no better place for him, he didn't look hard enough. Ditto for the Giants if they couldn't find another good player for $3 million.
By JAY GREENBERG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 17, 2004 --
ALBANY — One lousy exhibition game has been played, Kurt Warner not even playing especially lousy in it, and already Tom Coughlin is as annoyed with quarterback questions as he is with Tim Carter.
So unlike the gimpy, arguably wimpy, wideout, we're not going to "prance around," in the coach's words, waiting for him to name Thursday night's starter before chasing The Big Question out of the training room.
It is fast becoming clear a quarterback of Eli Manning's pedigree doesn't need training wheels, which makes us wonder what a quarterback with Kurt Warner's track record is doing here in the first place, seeing as the rebuilding Giants don't have much chance at first place with either guy.
Any Jon Kitna or Kurt Kittner, who work a lot cheaper, could do what the ex-Super Bowl MVP is going to get a chance to do here for a veteran coach who must dread quarterback controversy like bacteria in the team whirlpool. Especially when Manning can clean it up with that sponge he has for a mind.
"I went though rookie years with Bernie Kosar and Bert Jones, and Kosar was awfully savvy," said GM Ernie Accorsi. "But I've never seen anything like this."
That's only because Accorsi wasn't in Indianapolis in 1998, when Peyton Manning, who is not Eli, only of virtually identical intellect and makeup, was asked about his rookie trials and tribulations.
"It really hasn't been hard," Big Brother said matter-of-factly as he threw 26 touchdown passes and clipboards like the one Marvin Lewis glued into Carson Palmer's hand right out the window.
"Eli has picked up the mental part very fast," said Shawn O'Hara, the new center, yesterday. Of course Manning (7-for-13, 91 yards) was going against Kansas City's second unit, nothing like the challenge those Eagles, who have Jevon Kearse and seem to do very well when a Super Bowl berth is not immediately at stake, will present on Sept. 12.
Indeed, The Linc would be a scary spot for a rookie if this rookie scared easily, which he does not.
"To be honest, I think it gets easier in the regular season when you know what you are playing against," said O'Hara. "There are always disguises, but you know teams' tendencies and can game-plan.
"Kansas City hardly blitzed at all until Eli went in and then they brought the house, which you knew they would against a rookie."
Manning handled it, as he will in Philadelphia, at least the best way possible behind a new offensive line. The Giants, coming off a 4-12 disaster, with prancing linebackers, have the kind of team you can only hope will be coming together by November, by which time a $45 million quarterback deemed an upgrade over what was a perfectly good one had better be starting anyway or else you have wasted a year.
"So much of what I do goes beyond football," Warner said yesterday. "What's important to me is expressing my faith and sharing Jesus with people, and New York City presents opportunities for my foundation I couldn't do anywhere else.
"That's one reason I came here. The other is opportunities to start were few and far between. Other teams wanted to give young quarterbacks they had invested in a long look.
"I am going to try to prove I can still play this year. How God is going to use it, I don't know yet."
The story of Job springs to mind as an ongoing probability. If Manning isn't yet quite ready, he will be before Warner, who missed an entire year, who behind this line faces an opener that could fog his brain even more than last September's, again becomes a winning starter.
If Warner really thought that limited options presented no better place for him, he didn't look hard enough. Ditto for the Giants if they couldn't find another good player for $3 million.
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