Not that New York Giants management has given any indication otherwise, but Eli Manning seems even more likely to remain on the team in 2019 after Saturday.
As ESPN's Jordan Raanan noted, the 38-year-old quarterback received a $5 million bonus for being on the Giants' roster as of 4 p.m. Saturday. That bonus, according to NJ.com, accounts for more than 20 percent of Manning's salary-cap charge in 2019.
So unless general manager Dave Gettleman and co. simply wanted to pay Manning before parting ways with him, the longtime starter appears more set than ever as a member of the Giants' 2019 roster. If the Giants were intent on replacing Manning, as NJ.com's Ryan Dunleavy wrote, they likely already would have cut ties with him for the financial benefit:
They could have saved $17 million against the cap -- and paid just $6.2 million in signing bonus money -- by releasing Manning, who carries the 12th-highest salary cap hit and 13th-highest salary among NFL quarterbacks in 2019.
So with the 2019 NFL Draft just over a month away, it appears Manning is well positioned to reprise his starting role. And it remains to be seen whether Gettleman thinks any of this year's top quarterback prospects are worth drafting with one of the team's two first-round picks. ESPN's Dianna Russini reported earlier Saturday that New York thinks consensus top-five QB prospect Dwayne Haskins "doesn't fit" in the Giants offense -- a potential indication that Manning's potential successor might not even arrive this year.
