Should Jacksonville Jaguars trade for Eli Manning?
By Daniel Lago
The Jacksonville Jaguars sit atop the AFC South, but it’s clear they are limited by quarterback play. Could Eli Manning be a short term answer?
No.
I thought about making the entire article just the one demonstrative word, but I should delve into this comical subject a bit.
After the Jacksonville Jaguars absolutely waxed the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday to the tune of 5 interceptions (2 returned for touchdowns) in a 30-9 beatdown, the national story has somewhat surprisingly become the following:
The Jacksonville Jaguars have a really good defense – if only they had a quarterback.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t for the Jaguars. They’re winning but the story is still that they aren’t good enough to be real contenders.
Granted, it is probably true that the Jaguars don’t really have a chance in the playoffs with Blake Bortles, but crazier things have happened. The Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl on the back of Joe Flacco when he was playing out of his mind, and now we know that his playoff run was an outlier – Flacco is actually pretty bad.
I’m not saying Bortles can replicate anything near that… but I’d rather let him have a go at it than do what both Chris Wesseling and Daniel Jeremiah suggested on Twitter.
If you're Tom Coughlin/David Caldwell, would you make a call to Giants & ask what it would cost to acquire Eli Manning?
— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) October 9, 2017
If this was NBA, Jags would fix their QB problem by sending a first-round pick to spiraling Giants, reuniting Eli and Coughlin. Who says no? https://t.co/QRajyyqupj
— Chris Wesseling (@ChrisWesseling) October 9, 2017
The Jaguars would say no Chris.
I love the mailman (if you don’t listen to the Around the NFL Podcast, subscribe to it now), but this a shocking statement coming from a guy who has claimed multiple times that Eli Manning owes the entire viability of the last few years of his career to Odell Beckham Jr..
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Sending the Giants a first round pick for Eli Manning would be sheer lunacy. Would Eli Manning be better than Blake Bortles? Maybe, but for a first round pick why wouldn’t you try to nab a better option? Go after Brett Hundley over in Green Bay, see if the New England Patriots will take a first for Jimmy Garoppolo right now – heck, call up the Minnesota Vikings and see how Teddy Bridgewater is doing with his recovery and see if a 3rd round pick will do it.
Eli Manning is arguably just as bad as Blake Bortles right now. Mortgaging a first round pick for a guy you’ll likely be trying to replace again by the end of the year is pure desperation.
It would also be extremely sad in terms of team management. The Jaguars could call up Colin Kaepernick right now and get an upgrade at quarterback for free if they wanted it that much. It’s certainly a better option than trading for a quarterback on the wrong side of 35 who couldn’t even put up strong production with the best wide receiver in football.
Tom, Dave – if you’re going to trade a first round pick for a quarterback, don’t go for Eli.