Eli Manning would never admit to the media, his New York Giants teammates, or anyone else if he indeed had a problem with head coach Ben McAdoo.

That's just not how Manning does things. Think about it. We're talking about a 14-year veteran and two-time Super Bowl MVP who opted against keeping his active games started streak and following Ben McAdoo's wacky plan to do so because he felt like it would tarnish the record. We're also talking about a 14-year starter, and the face of the franchise, who spent Wednesday practicing with the Giants scout team and didn't complain at all. We're also talking about a leader in the community who shows up first and leaves the building last, every day, including Wednesday, when he arrived early to mentor rookie quarterback Davis Webb.

Does that sound like a guy who would admit to a problem with his head coach? The answer is probably not. However, the signs of an obvious crack in their relationship are only getting clearer. And like any time you've picked up your iPhone after an unlucky drop that cracked the screen, the break has only spidered out and gotten bigger as time has gone by. It all came to a head on Tuesday when McAdoo decided in a desperate attempt to save his job that Manning wasn't the best quarterback on the roster to fit his offensive scheme.

That's exactly what went down on Tuesday. In a last-ditch effort to prove to Giants owners that his offensive scheme had merit, McAdoo made the call to blame Manning for the team's offensive failures by suggesting that swapping him out for former New York Jets retread Geno Smith would make a positive difference.

Because we'll never glean any information from Manning, we look to McAdoo to find any potential signs of a crack in the foundation between the quarterback and head coach. It was my job to do some digging and that's exactly what I did. My goal was to find any slip-ups from McAdoo, who is normally very reserved in his commentary about the team. Remember, he was the same guy who refused to tell reporters whether or not he would be calling the plays last season -- they literally had to wait until the first offensive snap to find out.

Still, some of the cracks were more obvious to tell. Earlier this season, McAdoo waited until there was under 15 seconds left on the play clock to make the decision that the Giants would be going for it on fourth-and-goal. He relayed the play call to Manning who then took time to set up the offense and evaluate what the defense was showing him. The Giants were called for a delay of game, and when asked about it at later date, McAdoo shifted all of the blame on his quarterback.

“Sloppy quarterback play,” McAdoo told reporters when asked about what happened on the 4th-and-goal play.

Eli, of course, took the criticism in stride, but he didn't exactly put the blame on himself either. In other words, he didn't agree with McAdoo's shoddy assessment of what went down.

"He knows I can take it," Manning said. "If you've played 14 years in New York, you've been criticized. You can take pretty much whatever they throw at you. So, Coach McAdoo and I are on the same page and anything he says - whether it's to the media, to me, to the team - it's all for the better of the team and I'm OK with it."

Shortly after McAdoo threw Manning under the bus, ex-Giants wide receiver Ed McCaffrey criticized the head coach for his actions during an interview on Sirius XM Radio. McCaffrey also hinted that this type of behavior could lead to a mutiny in the Giants locker room -- similar to what happened with Giants head coach Ray Handley in 1992 when the Giants team turned their backs on him.

This wasn't the first crack in their relationship, but it was the first obvious and public display of disdain from a head coach about his quarterback.

Then, just a few weeks later, the Giants decided to have McAdoo hand over play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan. The Giants publicly say this was McAdoo's decision, but the context clues lead us to believe that the Manning-McAdoo pairing simply wasn't working any longer.

Ben McAdoo has disgraced Eli Manning and the time for change is NOW, Don't miss any of the news on changes, take a second to sign up for our FREE Giants newsletter!

NFL Draftnik Drew Boylhart believes this rift started a lot earlier and that McAdoo has been clamoring for a chance to play a quarterback of his choice for quite some time.

#Giants McAdoo started the process of blaming Manning for his poor coaching in pre season. He has been working towards this from the beginning because he want's credit to develop his own QB & Offense. #NFL The guy is sick. — Drew Boylhart (@DrewBoylhart) November 29, 2017

When you do some extra digging, you soon find that McAdoo called out Manning back during the 2017 NFL Combine where he showed an alarming lack of support for the Giants' 14-year starter.

"I think that's an easy blame, an easy one-liner you can throw out there if you think you have all the answers," McAdoo said when asked if the Giants' struggling offensive line made it difficult for Manning to find success in 2016. "I don't necessarily agree with that. The offensive line, they need to play better, I agree with that. I think Eli needs to do a better job of playing with faster feet and he needs to sit on that back foot in the pocket. He's got to play with fast feet, he has to be ready to sit on that back foot and hitch into a throw."

If I wanted to dive into the multitude of examples and breakdowns as to why McAdoo's offensive scheme is poorly-coached and developed, you would be stuck here for another 20-25 paragraphs. Instead, take a look at my Twitter timeline or any of Brian Baldinger's breakdowns. Here's just one example:

.@Giants protection of Eli Manning: and did anyone hear a squeak from the QB with this futility up front. #BaldyBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/5pnHc7i5xg — Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 29, 2017

As Baldinger points out, you didn't hear a single complaint from Manning. Despite the fact that the Giants have not provided Manning with a competent offensive line since the 2007 and 2008 seasons, he's never complained. Manning hasn't had a consistent running game to help work in the play-action passing game since those seasons either, but again, not a single complaint from the veteran quarterback.

.@Giants should detail their work a little better by giving the new Right Tackle a little help v @Redskins best defensive player @RyanKerrigan91 #BaldyBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/S9cPOHWYTH — Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 29, 2017

What's that video clip above? Baldinger is blunt about this one -- sloppy, lazy, and poor play design by Mr. McAdoo.

On Wednesday, for the first time, Giants co-owner John Mara came to grips publicly with the growing rift between McAdoo and Manning. Mara's comments were subtle, and you had to read between the lines, but it was all out there in the opening if you looked closely enough. Mara trusted McAdoo to handle the benching in the right way, but that was simply something the embattled head coach was unable to do.

"It was presented the way Ben thought it ought to be presented," Mara said.

"Could we have done it differently?" he added. "I guess you argue that we could've, yes."

After reporters continued to press him, Mara even admitted that McAdoo could have done a better job presenting it to Manning.

"I suppose he (McAdoo) could have," Mara said. "I don’t think that’s necessarily his strength, but I suppose he could have."

It's all out there in the open now. McAdoo and Manning can no longer co-exist and it's difficult to find any possible rational explanation that this is anyone's fault but the second-year head coach.