Preseason is Sorgi's time to shine

Jim Sorgi is looking forward to Monday’s preseason game against the Jets. And why not? As a backup quarterback, these preseason games are his time to shine. Eli Manning will be given a handful of snaps to start the game and then Sorgi will take over for most of the rest of the game.

“This is a huge opportunity,” he said. “It’s my first game running this offense and it’s a game against the Jets who have a great defense. I’m excited, anxious, a little butterflies, but that will all go away.”

Sorgi said his goal is to be “smooth” when he’s on the field. He wants to run a crisp offense and get people into the right spots, avoid turnovers and make the right calls and checks.

But how comfortable is he with the Giants’ offense?

“Ehh,” he said. “I’m close. It’ll take me a while to get all of it down. But I feel comfortable running the base stuff. I don’t know how crazy we’ll get with the play calls, but I would assume we’ll keep it rather base and simple and let the guys go out there and me go out there and just play fast.”

Sorgi also said he’s competing with Rhett Bomar for the primary backup job on the team, but he also sees himself competing with Eli Manning. It’s the same philosophy he had when he was Peyton Manning’s backup in Indianapolis for six seasons.

“I always told them when I was in Indianapolis that I was competing with Peyton, even though how crazy that sounds,” Sorgi said. “There’s always competition whether you are the one, the two or the three. Right now they have us slotted the way they have us slotted. It could change in the preseason. My job is to go out there and make sure that it doesn’t change.”

Of course, with Eli Manning as the starter, the hope is that Sorgi will stay firmly planted on the bench throughout the regular season. And after playing behind Peyton for all those years and getting into only 16 games, he’s used to knowing that barring an obituary of some sort he’s probably not going to be called upon.

“You don’t know when your chance is going to come during the regular season, when you might get in there,” Sorgi said. “You have to assume that it’s every week, but in all likelihood it’s not going to be so you have to take advantage of what you know you’re going to get (in the preseason). They’d have to cart (Eli or Peyton) off the field. It’s just one of those things that you take it in stride. You prepare like you’re going to play. In all likelihood you’re not, but in that certain circumstance where you do, you have to be ready.”