New York Giants: Depleted Receiving Corps Will Make Evaluating Eli Manning Difficult

With the New York Giants wide receiving corps in shambles, evaluating Eli Manning’s play for the rest of the season will be difficult.

We all know how rough Week 5 was for the New York Giants. They gave the Los Angeles Chargers their first win of the season and Big Blue fell to 0-5. On top of that, the Giants lost superstar Odell Beckham Jr. (ankle) and his fellow wide receivers Brandon Marshall (ankle) and Dwayne Harris (foot) for the rest of the season with injuries.

Sterling Shepard also left Sunday’s game with an ankle injury and has already been ruled out for New York’s upcoming matchup with the Denver Broncos. He’ll continue to be week-to-week.

All of this mess leaves a receiving corps that will be led by second-year man Roger Lewis. The Giants also re-signed Tavarres King after cutting him earlier in the year and promoted Travis Rudolph and Ed Eagan from their practice squad. Not the most encouraging group of pass catchers.

Expect tight end Evan Engram to see A LOT of targets. However, he’s still just a rookie and shouldn’t be the offensive feature. Then again, no one on this roster is an offensive feature after losing OBJ and Marshall.

Yes, the New York Giants 2017 season is essentially over. This team isn’t going anywhere this year so who cares who’s catching passes?

I suppose you could just not watch the Giants for the rest of the year, but then what would you do with your Sundays? Watch the Jets? That winning record won’t be around for long.

What’s important about this depleted receiving corps is its effect on the Giants future.

With the 2017 season all but over, the New York Giants have to focus on the future and evaluate their roster. They need to see who’s worth keeping around for 2018 and beyond and see where there might be holes to fill.

The Giants wide receivers will be fine next season with Odell coming back and Shepard hopefully healthy. I’d be surprised if Marshall is back next year as New York can cut him and have just $1 million in dead cap. But overall, Big Blue’s 2018 receiving corps is not in trouble.

The effect this year’s receiver injuries have on the Giants future is the evaluation of Eli Manning.

Manning is getting up there in age as he’ll be 37 years old next season. As players get older, regression is inevitable. However, the problem for the rest of this year is that, if Eli doesn’t play well, it will be hard to decipher what’s regression and what’s due to a lack of quality receiving options.

The Giants offense was struggling before the injuries to their receivers. Now with limited weapons, it will only get worse and likely make Eli Manning look bad.

Manning’s completion percentage is bound to go down. A combination of more dropped passes and fewer wide receivers getting open will make things difficult for Eli. Without Beckham or Marshall, Manning will likely throw for fewer yards and touchdowns as well.

As Eli’s stats take a hit, the Giants will have to decide if he’s losing his touch or if he just has nothing to work with.

Figuring out how much Manning has left in the tank is crucial as the Giants need to plan for the future and find their next franchise quarterback.

Could it be 2017 third-round pick Davis Webb? Perhaps. However, if the losses keep piling up for Big Blue, general manager Jerry Reese could be shown the door. If Reese is fired, a new GM would come in with no allegiance to Webb and likely draft his own future quarterback.

The New York Giants projected draft position makes things even more complicated. If the season ended today, the Gmen would have the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. With a trip to Denver coming this week, followed by a visit from the Seahawks, and Kansas City coming to town a few weeks later, it doesn’t seem like the Giants record will get much better anytime soon.

With New York likely picking in the top-five and potentially first overall, it will be tough for either Jerry Reese or a new GM to pass on a top quarterback prospect. The last time the Giants picked in the top-five, they drafted Eli Manning.

More from New York Giants

• Caesars New York Promo Code: Win $250 Bonus GUARANTEED on ANY Bet!
• When will the New York Giants’ First Win Come?
• New York Giants Look Horrible in Loss to 49ers
• New York Giants to Play an Injured 49ers Team Sunday
• New York Giants: Breaking Down the Devonta Freeman Signing

The team doesn’t plan on picking that high too often, so when they get the opportunity to pick a top-five talent, it will be tough to not draft their next franchise signal-caller.

With USC’s Sam Darnold and UCLA’s Josh Rosen potentially on the board when the New York Giants are picking, whoever is calling the shots will have to think long and hard about bringing one of the Cali boys to the Big Apple.

If Jerry Reese is still around, I could see him committing to Davis Webb and going in a different direction with his top pick. However, a new GM might not be able to resist Darnold or Rosen.

No matter what happens with the Giants general manager position, the sense of urgency to draft the team’s next franchise quarterback will depend on how much longer they think their current signal-caller can play.

Next: Is Ben McAdoo on His Way Out as Season Unravels?

Finding out how much Eli Manning has left in the tank needs to be a priority for the New York Giants for the rest of the season. His depleted receiving corps, however, will make that very difficult.