Manning sees a big opportunity to improve this offseason

By foxsports
Published

Eli Manning is no spring chicken, in fact, he turned 34 in January. Having said that, in 2014 at the age of 33, Manning had arguably one of his best regular seasons of his entire career. Rejuvenated under first-year offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, Manning threw for 4,410 yards, completing a career best 63.1 percent of his pass attempts, and he posted a 30:14 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

Now, Manning has the luxury of approaching this offseason differently in his second season in McAdoo's scheme. After spending the entire offseason and training camp learning McAdoo's scheme, play calls, and terminology, now he can solely focus on mastering it. Oh, and it also helps that Manning will be entering the organize team activities healthy after missing time last April and May as he recovered from offseason surgery.

"I see a lot of room for improvement," Manning said Sunday morning at the March of Dimes March for Babies in New York City. "Last year at this time in April and May I wasn't able to do a lot of the drills, a lot of the footwork stuff because of the injury. I'm excited about having a spring to rep a lot of these things. This is the time where you can really get some of the mechanical parts of the offense down and really rep the small things and get that being perfect. I'm looking forward to getting that work under the new system.

"Last year I got in later and we were already into the plays and it was about learning what to do," Manning continued. "Now it's kind of putting everything together."

There's no reason to believe that Manning and the entire Giants offense won't take a major step forward in 2014. As Manning mentions, the players will have more continuity and chemistry within the offense. Manning will enjoy the return 2014's Rookie of the Year, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. The team also added former New England Patriots running back Shane Vereen to add a new element to the offense as a back who can stretch the field horizontally and vertically in the passing game.

If the Giants' offense is to take that final step toward becoming one of the NFL's elite units, they will need former start wide receiver Victor Cruz to return to form after recovering from major knee surgery. 

The Giants plan to take things slowly with Cruz and avoid rushing him back, but there are concerns about whether or not he can be the same player he was before the surgery. Cruz has never been a receiver who wins with his straight-line speed or jumping ability, he instead wins in space with his ability to separate from coverage due to his unique agility and lateral explosion.

Manning remains hopeful that Cruz will return to full health, but he acknowledged the seriousness of his recovery and the potential hurdles along the way.

"You just hope he'll be able to come back," Manning said. "You see some of the plays, the catches and the stops real quick, making that first guy miss, some of the cuts, and you hope he'll be able to do those things again. I think you hope for the best and he can make a full recovery. But we're going to be smart with him, make sure he comes back on his own time, and when he's ready get in there and be right back in the mix."

If Cruz does bounce back to form and if the Giants can add a premier offensive tackle in one of the first two rounds of this weekend's upcoming 2015 NFL Draft, look out for this offense to enter the elite category in 2015.

(h/t Newsday)

Photo Credit: Kathy Willens/AP Images

For more on the Giants and the entire NFC East, you can find Dan on Twitter @DanSchneierNFL or Google +.