The Miracle at the Meadowlands -- so named for its irony, of course -- is the most ignominious moment in the history of the New York Football Giants. If we had to reach for second place, some would say the decision to punt to DeSean Jackson some years back. But really we need only look to last year, when the Giants benched the best QB in club history.
There was a magical stupidity to it, not only because it broke Eli Manning's sprawling streak of consecutive starts. It was compounded by who started in Manning's place -- Geno Smith, the broken-down QB with the broken jaw and a running joke among local NFL fans. If anyone should have started that game, it was Davis Webb, whom the Giants actually drafted and was Manning's presumed successor.
But not only is the man who made that move -- former coach Ben McAdoo -- long gone, so is Webb. In the most startling move among all that Big Blue made to shave their roster to 53 players, the former third-round pick is gone. Webb seemed to have a future with the G-Men, not only because he was playing well all summer, but also because the Giants demurred when the gridiron skies opened and QB Sam Darnold was on their laps on draft day. Instead, they flicked the stud and future star QB off their lap and bagged running back Saquon Barkley with the second overall pick.
Webb played well against the Lions, his last game in Big Blue colors, and finished the preseason 28-of-53 for 283 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Now the pecking order behind Manning is some mutation of Alex Tanney and Kyle Lauletta.
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New coach Pat Shurmur was overtly diplomatic, asserting the move was less about Webb and more about the other QBs jousting for a roster spot. Why would Shurmur cut a prospect like Webb, drafted just over a year ago, a 23-year-old with a robust NFL throwing arm, and replace him with someone like Tanney, a 30-year-old journeymen discarded by seven NFL teams?
It's a curious move. But clearly Shurmur wants to spray his brand of aerosol on an offense that was rancid last year. And clearly Shurmur thinks Manning is not only going to play well this year, but also next year. If Big Blue's new coach is a religious man, he would do well to pray to the deity of his choice that the mutant Manning DNA holds true, because if Eli pops a limb or ligament, the 2018 season won't look any better than the 2017 season.
Sweeping dead, old or unwanted wood could be the overriding theme. A few eyebrows were arched when the Giants cut Andrew Adams and Darian Thompson, who were pining for the free safety spot next to Pro Bowl stud Landon Collins. Adams started 13 games in 2016, while Thompson started 16 games in 2017, making both holdovers from the Jerry Reese regime.
In another strange move, the G-Men now have four running backs on their 53-man roster. It's particularly odd when you consider they just put the ball -- and much of their future -- in Barkley's hands. The heralded rookie is projected to get around 350 touches this season, which is high-grade, Le'Veon Bell territory. How they plan to feed Barkley the rock while rotating rookie Robert Martin, second-year player Wayne Gallman and veteran Jonathan Stewart is an algorithm only Shurmur can complete.
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The last surprising move was waving defensive lineman Robert Thomas, who was not only generating a rigorous pass rush (registering two sacks during the preseason), but was also popular in the locker room, especially among his fellow grunts along the line.
But the move that made headlines was the vocational beheading of Webb. After the Giants allegedly shopped him to other teams, they simply canned him, plopping him into that overcrowded recycle bin of has-beens and wannabes. By all accounts, Webb is an eager teammate who can make all the throws in the NFL. This is not quite the equivalent of what happened down the hall, when the Jets got rid of the aloof Christian Hackenberg, who was once booted from practice for improperly breaking a huddle.
The Giants are refined at semantics and subterfuge, even by NFL's paranoid standards. Neither Shurmur nor his boss, Dave Gettleman, will hand us the headline behind the action, instead belching the bromides about Player A beating out Player B on the field, nothing more. There's always more. The Giants just don't want us to know it. They just need to win for us to forget about it.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
