By Peter Brennan
Chalk this news up to “we knew it was going to happen, but not necessarily this early in the season.”
The New York Giants have named rookie Daniel Jones their starting quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, replacing Eli Manning.
“Eli and I spoke this morning. I told him that we are making a change and going with Daniel as the starter,” Giants coach Pat Shurmur said in a statement released by the team. “I also talked to Daniel. Eli was obviously disappointed, as you would expect, but he said he would be what he has always been a good teammate, and continue to prepare to help this team win games. Daniel understands the challenge at hand, and he will be ready to play on Sunday.”
Jones, 22, was the sixth overall pick in the draft in April out of Duke.
This will be only the second time since Manning initially became the starting quarterback by replacing eventual Hall of Famer Kurt Warner in 2004 that he will not start a regular season game. He was benched for one game in 2017 in favor of Geno Smith, and then-head coach Ben McAdoo and then-general manager Jerry Reese were fired the morning after
