With even his veteran coach Tom Coughlin apparently fighting for his job, Eli Manning tepidly admitted this week what every New York Giant fan already knows.
"I need to play better and... in certain games I didn't play as good as I needed to win," Manning told the New York Post. "Some games were just tough and we got outplayed, but I can definitely improve. I need to and I will.''
Peyton Manning's 33-year-old younger brother passed for 3,818 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2013, but it was hardly enough for the Giants and their 7-9 record to make it out of the NFC East, as he also threw a staggering 27 interceptions.
"He did not have a good year ," owner John Mara told The Post. "He'd be the first one to tell you that. But he had a lot of company. With Eli, sometimes he tries to do too much. He competes so hard and has so much confidence in his ability to get the ball into certain areas that unfortunately he makes mistakes sometimes. But I still have every confidence in him. He's the face of the franchise. We have to help him."
With that in mind, GM Jerry Reese has put everyone in the organization on notice . "You look at him and you see some of the things and say that's the guy we know and love," Reese told The Post of Manning. "There's been some really good quarterbacks that had some rough seasons, a high interception total and come back and been really good players. I think his brother's had even more than that in a season before."
Manning - who restructured his contract in March 2012 - has two years left on his deal with cap hits of $20.4 million and $19.75 million. Mara said they'll discuss an extension to lower the cap number if the team decides to be aggressive in free agency.
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