Former Giants WR Mario Manningham signed a 2-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers. Â It saddens me to write this although I already knew he was leaving. Â Manningham caught an amazing catch during the Super Bowl that set up the game winning touchdown. Â It would turn out to be Manningham’s last win with the Giants and ironically he’s leaving us to join the team he helped beat on the way to the Super Bowl. Â Read more after the jump.
Manningham was expected to depart the New York Giants in free agency after an impressive postseason and fourth quarter performance in the Super Bowl and he will be joining the team he helped beat in the NFC Championship.
Manningham will join an upgraded receiving corps that also includes Randy Moss, who signed a one-year contract Monday.
Manningham finished last season with 39 receptions for 523 yards and four touchdowns in 12 regular-season games. But he caught three touchdowns — including one against the Niners — in the postseason and had five receptions for 73 yards against the Patriots, including his sensational 38-yard fourth-quarter catch that set up the game-winning touchdown.
Manningham was a luxury for the Giants, who have Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. Cruz surpassed Manningham last season on the depth chart and general manager Jerry Reeseeventually will have to pay both of his top wideouts, leaving Manningham free to go in free agency.
Manningham said during an interview prior to free agency that there were advantages to playing with an elite quarterback like Eli Manning but that there are other quarterbacks out there.
“He is, but there are a lot of good quarterbacks in this league,” Manningham told The Vindicator in Ohio recently. “I just want the ball more, that’s all.”
And Manningham just wasn’t going to see consistent targets with Nicks and Cruz.The Giants will have to find a new third receiver. Reese and head coach Tom Coughlin said at the NFL Scouting Combine that they expect last year’s third-round pick, Jerrel Jernigan, to step up this season. Also, the Giants would like to see what the 6-foot-6 Ramses Barden, a 2009 third-round pick, can do as well. They re-signed veteran wide receiverDomenik Hixon, who is coming off a torn ACL injury for the second straight year and still could add another receiver in free agency or the draft.
Manningham, 25, is eager to prove that he can be a top receiver. He had a career-high 60 receptions for 944 yards and nine touchdowns in 2010.
“Yeah,” he said when asked if he views himself as a top wide receiver and thinks a team will be willing to pay him as such as well. “It’s a business. You got to look at it like that too. Their (the Giants) decision might come down to … you never know. You got to look out for your family. That is how it is.”
