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Ex-Jet Damien Woody rips Giants QB Eli Manning: 'He's toast'

The New York Giants are struggling and that has once again made quarterback Eli Manning a target — a position he’s spent more time in throughout his career than any other.

Now staring down the barrel at a potential 0-3 record, fans and media alike already feel as if the wheels are coming off in East Rutherford and when the sharks smell blood in the water, they attack.

Such was the case on Wednesday when former New York Jets offensive lineman Damien Woody unleashed on Manning, straight-up calling him “trash.”

“Toast. He is toast, OK? Listen, everyone has talked about the offensive line. I mean, I live in the New York tri-state area. You hear it all the time. ‘The Giants offensive line is trash.’ Which they are. They’re bad. They’re bad. There’s no question about that,” Woody said during an appearance on ESPN. “But there’s been one constant with the Giants. They’ve had change at GM. They’ve had change at the head coaching position. They signed Odell Beckham. They drafted a running back. But there’s been one constant, and that’s the quarterback, OK? Eli Manning.

“I understand he won two Super Bowls. I get it, OK? But nobody cares about that. We’re not talking about legacy here. What was that, back in like 2011? Dude, that’s like eons ago, OK? We’re talking about right here, right now.

“When you look at Eli Manning and that Giants offense, he needs like the perfect storm. He needs everything, the environment, perfect. He needs the protection to be perfect.

“He has the weapons. He has the running back. All those things. But that’s not the nature of the National Football League. There’s going to be times when you need to make plays off platform, off schedule. That’s what the really good quarterbacks do.”

Through two weeks, the perfect storm hasn’t arrived for Odell Beckham Jr., who has zero touchdown receptions on the season. It also hasn’t arrived for Saquon Barkley, who has gained just 66 rushing yards on the season if you take away his 68-yard run in Week 1.

The point is, football is a team game and in order for both the individual and unit to find success, everyone needs to pull their own weight to create that perfect storm. The offensive line’s struggles have hindered the entire offensive unit, not just Eli Manning, but he’s the face of the franchise and will forever be the lightning rod as a result.

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