Eli Manning got his wish.
Manning signed a four-year contract extension with the New York Giants on Friday, Manning told NFL Media's Rhett Lewis. The deal, which is worth $84 million, is expected to include $65 million in guarantees and has a no-trade clause, sources close to the situation told NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport.
"I'm obviously excited knowing I'll be a Giant for a long time," Manning said in a statement. "This is where I got started and where I want to finish. I still have the same mentality. My goal is to earn this contract and do my best and keep trying to win championships for the Giants.
"Once the talks got going and we were very close, I definitely wanted to try to get it done before the season, so I could just think about football," he continued. "... It's good to have that over with, so I can work on playing football and winning football games."
Rapoport reported Wednesday that significant progress had been made in negotiations and optimism had grown that a deal would be in place before the Giants open the season on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys.
The deal is similar to recent extensions given to Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers and Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. Manning's $21 million average per year salary is slightly behind Wilson ($21.9 million) and just ahead of Rivers (20.8 million). Aaron Rodgers ($22 million) is the NFL's highest-paid signal-caller.
No big-money extension is a sure thing as an investment, but Manning, 34, is pretty close. He has never missed a start in 11 seasons, has nearly every Giants passing record and, of course, owns two Super Bowl MVP awards. His agent, Tom Condon, made the fair point that Manning's unflappable nature in the New York spotlight is a factor in negotiations.
