Saying goodbye to Eli Manning will be a tough job for GM Dave Gettleman
In the NFL, saying goodbye is about as ubiquitous and commonplace as saying “hike.”
Consider that each of the 32 NFL teams currently have 90 players on their roster, and in about six weeks they’ll be trimmed to nearly half that size. Add in the offseason maneuvering that takes place on an annual basis — something the Giants partook heavily in these past few months — and an organization (and those who run them) has to be well versed in bidding adieu.
“It’s not easy,” Giants general manager Dave Gettleman said of the parting process. “I don’t take any of this lightly. None of it . . . When you are dealing with people you don’t take one part of it lightly. Every person, whenever you are saying something difficult to somebody, you have got to make sure that you give them their dignity.”
Gettleman said that in relation to some of the popular players he has jettisoned since he returned to the Giants less than two years ago. Guys like Odell Beckham Jr. and Landon Collins, who objected to they way their relationship with the team ended. Those were hard decisions and difficult conversations (if they took place at all).
But there is one farewell that is coming that will dwarf them all. Whether it is this year, next offseason, or even a few years down the road, it’s something that Gettleman has on his radar as something that will be necessary for him to do.
So how do you prepare an organization, and yourself as a general manager, to say goodbye to a player who has worn the Giants uniform longer and with more success than anyone ever has?
How do you say: So, long, Eli Manning?
Gettleman, the king of the one-liners, stammered at that prospect when he spoke to reporters on Friday.
“That’s a really hard question,” he said. “Why’d you ask me that?”
Because as Gettleman and everyone else — even Manning himself — knows, it’s going to come up. And probably sooner than later.
“As long as you do everything the right way, that’s how you prepare yourself,” Gettleman said. “In your mind you go through the things you need to go through and you do it like a pro. You do it like a pro.
“There is always a human piece of this.”
Gettleman gave no concrete indication of when that decision to transition from Eli Manning to rookie Daniel Jones will take place. He did say it will be head coach Pat Shurmur’s decision, but clearly a move of such magnitude will involve conversations at various levels of the organization, most likely right up to John Mara’s desk, before a switch is made.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to be clear,” Gettleman said. “You just have to do it. Don’t lock your knees and just go.”
Gettleman and the organization is still very high on Jones. The general manager said he refuses to take the temperature of the quarterback situation on a daily basis, so there is no scoreboard in his office telling him that Manning “won” this day, Jones “won” that one. And while Jones had an inauspicious start to his first full team practice on Thursday, the Giants were overall pleased with how he performed and bounced back.
“I think he has tremendous upside,” Gettleman said of Jones.
To see it fulfilled, the Giants will have to push Manning aside.
It’s a complex dynamic and it is a day the entire organization is both dreading . . . and eagerly anticipating. It’s not marked on any calendar, there are no mental landmarks that will announce its arrival. There is no countdown to let everyone know to prepare.
But it’s coming. Quickly.
And for a front office that some might think has gotten numb to goodbyes, it will be one of the most difficult emotional they’ll ever have to initiate.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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