Puffins Notebook: Goodbye Eli

This week the Puffins made no waiver claims and no pickups. This comes as no surprise considering the trade that went down Monday between the Puffins and Maddogs. For those who missed it, the Puffins traded Eli Manning, Reuben Droughns, & their 4th round pick in next year's draft to the Maddogs in exchange for Byron Leftwich and Marvin Harrison.

"Did we give a lot for an older player in Harrison? Yes, we did," said GM Derek Harlan. "But, as many of you know, we have to always look ahead, and based on the matchups in the upcoming weeks, we felt like we could trade Eli and Reuben and not be taking a step back. Obviously, much of our decision rests on Thomas Jones staying healthy and Sam Gado continuing to emerge as a solid play at O.C. each week. As an organization, it would be silly to think that Eli and Reuben can help us more sitting on the bench than Marvin Harrison can being in our lineup."

As for the other player coming over in the deal, Harlan added, "We've always felt that Jake Delhomme is a nice fantasy QB, but again, it came down to the matchups each (Delhomme & Leftwich) guy has the last seven weeks of the season. We like Byron's chances more and with having Jimmy Smith struggling like he has been, we thought this could be the spark that gets him going. I guess we'll see."

In other news...
...saying goodbye is never easy an easy thing to do. Thus, we're dedicating this week's entire section to Eli Manning. Eli was never one to shy away from a soundbite. In fact, there were many times when we told Eli to just "leave out the details" of some of his off the field activities, but he always felt obligated to give us the full story. He always compared it to "watching a good R-rated movie on USA or TNT and they always cut out the nudity, and I don't like it when they do that." Eli, in just his second NFL season, has emerged as a legit number one fantasy QB and potential keeper for the Maddogs. However, Manning's chances of being kept by the Horned Puffins were slim. Manning even commented on the situation earlier in the year. "I know I'm behind Tom and that's fine with me. I can learn a lot from him. He's a good teammate and leader. He's a solid fantasy player and he really knows how to hook it up with some hot chicks. He's got a girlfriend and all, but still knows how to have some fun, if you know what I mean. I love the guy." Perhaps Manning's most difficult time in a Puffin uniform came a few weeks ago, when he was benched at the last minute in favor of Marion Barber. Stories were flying around as to what happened and why he was benched. In fact, the rumor mill was spinning here at tkn2, but after Reuben Droughns was handed a DUI, the focus shifted there instead of on Manning. So what happened to get him benched? "Man, I kinda goofed up there," chuckled Manning. "I was in college and was pretty trashed and talking to all these hot chicks and the next thing I know they're putting pictures of me on the internet of me all drunk and saying it was from the night before a game and stuff. The team decided it needed to investigate and they benched me. That was it, no more, no less. When they (the organization) found out that the pictures were old and from college, they just shut up about everything and didn't make any more announcements. Hey, it's all good now." Manning, our favorite player to ever wear the Puffins uniform, will be missed. "I'll miss y'all, too," said Manning. "But remember, I'm not going that far and Scott's a pretty cool guy so maybe every once in a while we can still talk and I can fill you in on who I'm sleeping with." We can only hope Eli.
Thanks for the memories and best of luck with the Maddogs.