EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The pitchforks are out. The fan base of the 2-9 team wants blood after their beloved quarterback was pushed aside in the most awkward way.

It’s hard to blame them as the dust (sort of) settles. The way the New York Giants botched the inevitable transition from quarterback Eli Manning was uncomfortable and insulting. They hatched a plan that asked for him to essentially serve as a show pony to extend his consecutive games streak.

Manning, too proud and team-oriented to acquiesce, opted to allow Geno Smith and eventually Davis Webb to be the Giants quarterbacks for the remainder of the season. Smith will start Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

The whole thing was ugly and choppy, and co-owner John Mara conceded it could’ve been handled differently. But the Giants reached their intended destination, and they will be better for it in the end.

The Eli Manning era was sputtering to a close. Just look at the second half of last Thursday night’s loss to the Washington Redskins when the Giants couldn’t do much of anything (one first down in the final moments). That should’ve been way more embarrassing than any benching.

The Giants needed to take a different approach, to look at the other quarterbacks on their roster. It would have been irresponsible for them not to obtain every bit of information possible before making their biggest decision since 2004, because that's what's on the horizon. This April can be a game-changing moment for the organization with its highest pick since … 2004 when it landed Manning.

If the Giants are able to find their franchise quarterback -- either with Webb or in the draft -- the way this all went down will be nothing but a footnote at the end of Manning’s two-time Super Bowl-winning career. Regardless of how it was done, these breakups are never clean.

The Giants are about to have an extremely high pick in a draft that could have several potential franchise quarterbacks available early. Manning is about to be 37 years old and the leader of an offense that has scored the second-fewest points in the NFL this season. They couldn’t even muster a first down in the second half on Thanksgiving until the game was essentially over in the final minutes. He didn’t play well and hasn’t for much of this season.

It’s clearly not all his fault that the Giants are 32-43 during the past five years. The roster has been consistently insufficient. But Manning hasn’t exactly held up his end of the bargain as the highest-paid Giants player expected to lift those around him. With the state of the current roster and franchise, what is going to magically reverse the Giants’ fortunes with Manning at quarterback in the final few years of his career?

The blame can obviously be spread around. The general manager assembled a fatally flawed roster, and the head coach didn’t do a good job with the pieces at his disposal.

But just because Manning has been a good guy and teammate since his arrival doesn’t mean he deserves to start football games until he can’t anymore, especially when he’s not playing well.

There are rarely ever any smooth divorces. This wasn’t pretty either.

This is a business, for all parties involved. You can’t conveniently pick when it becomes personal. Manning didn’t offer the Giants a discount because they had treated him well over the years when he was negotiating his contracts. He took a top-of-the-market deal every time. There is nothing wrong with that. In the NFL, you cash in whenever you can.

The flip side is the team can move on when it makes financial sense for it, no matter how many Pro Bowls and Super Bowls are on the résumé. That’s the system that exists. It happened to Joe Montana, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning, to name a few.

This is how it works. There are more than a few people in the Giants organization that believe Manning is done, or close to done. His level of play has dipped drastically the past few years.

So they want to see what Smith and Webb can do at this point. They want to do their due diligence.

“We’ll have to find out. We’re 2-9, we’ll have to find out whether they give us a better chance of winning,” Mara said. “Let them play and see.”

We will, and the Giants will find out if either will be their future. It’s necessary as they reach a pivotal point in the franchise’s history, because the time has come to find their next Eli Manning.