All Eyes, and All Possibilities, Rest Squarely on Manning

ALBANY, July 29 — Eli Manning stepped from Tim Hasselbeck’s car on Friday, and the two quarterbacks walked to the dormitory room they share during training camp. Cameras focused on Manning as Hasselbeck, a backup, carried a jumbo-sized package of toilet paper.

It was a planned diversionary tactic. Manning knows that eyes are always cast on him, and he did not want photographs and video clips showing him arriving to training camp carrying a value pack of double-ply.

A nearly singular spotlight has been on Manning since he was chosen first over all in the 2004 N.F.L. draft and anointed the franchise quarterback after he was acquired from San Diego. But as Manning enters his fourth season, after three often-shaky ones, he and the Giants are running out of ways to orchestrate his public perception. They have run out of excuses for his middling performances, and they are running short of chances to prove that he is worth the investment of years, dollars and hope.

“It’s fair for us to ask him to get better, yeah, and that is what we have to expect,” said the offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride, who spent the past three seasons as Manning’s quarterbacks coach.

By N.F.L. quarterback standards, Manning, 26, is no longer young, and he is no longer inexperienced, with 39 regular-season and two postseason starts. He has had the same coaches and offense since he arrived, stability rarely afforded top draft choices.

“He’s not the young quarterback that’s got to learn this or that,” Hasselbeck said. “If you look at it like you do in college, this is his fourth year. He’s like a senior quarterback.”

And now that running back Tiki Barber has retired, this is Manning’s team, for better or worse. Coach Tom Coughlin nearly lost his job last season, and Manning’s play this year will largely determine if Coughlin coaches in 2008. Coughlin made his biggest adjustment in Manning’s development this off-season, changing coordinators and hiring a new quarterbacks coach, Chris Palmer.

The Giants worry that Manning’s numbers last season were nearly identical to 2005’s. But they are most concerned with his mistakes. He has thrown 35 interceptions the past two years, more than anyone except Green Bay’s Brett Favre.

“Right now, our guy tries to do right by everybody so much,” Gilbride said. “He doesn’t want to take a sack as much for the offensive line as much as down-and-distance-wise, and sometimes he’ll force a play that maybe he shouldn’t force.”

Palmer has fed Manning a diet heavy in drills for footwork and technique — more than Gilbride did. And Palmer and Gilbride are giving Manning more leeway to change plays or formations at the line of scrimmage.

“ ‘If you see something, hey, get it blocked up, get us in something better,’ ” Manning said of the directive he has received. “ ‘You know what you’re doing out there. You’re the one who’s got to get us in the right play. You’re the one who has got to take charge.’ It has a little bit more of that, I think.”

There has long been a question over whether Manning’s laid-back, “Easy Eli” vibe suits the demands on an N.F.L. quarterback. The Giants dismiss such questions and are well beyond trying to reprogram his personality. “He’ll never be this outgoing, convivial guy,” Gilbride said.

Teammates have said that he has shown a bit of swagger and that they have noticed a recent rise in assertiveness. Maybe it is maturity. Maybe it is urgency. But it is welcomed by the Giants, who finished 8-8 last year. They are a team that appears as likely to make the playoffs in the weak National Football Conference as it does to collapse into coaching changes and a roster overhaul.

Hasselbeck has spent two seasons with Manning. He said Palmer had gotten Manning to open up more, perhaps because Palmer was simply trying to get to know him.

“He’s more vocal in meetings, talking about things he likes and doesn’t like,” Hasselbeck said. “Chris has pulled some of that out of him. But also, Eli is more experienced, and he has more experience to draw on.”

Manning has spent most of his life being compared with his older brother Peyton, the Colts quarterback, who won his first Super Bowl in February after nine seasons.

Eli Manning was there. And as he stood before a throng of reporters outside his dorm room Friday, not holding toilet paper and giving his typically polite responses to the unanswerable questions about his future performance, Manning was asked if his brother’s championship added a dose of motivation.

“Seeing it and being there, it makes you want one,” he said. “So I think it teaches you a few things. You never know when it’s going to happen, you never know when it’s your year.”

Asked about his brother’s Super Bowl ring, Manning said, “It’s nice.”

He smiled. The reporters thought he would continue. He did not, and a moment of anticipatory silence turned to laughter. Again, no one was quite sure what to make of Eli Manning.

EXTRA POINTS

The Giants were still waiting for word from defensive end Michael Strahan on whether he would retire or report to camp. By Sunday afternoon, Tom Coughlin had not spoken to Strahan, who missed his second day of practices. ... The Giants scheduled a physical examination for Wednesday for the former Tampa Bay defensive end Simeon Rice.