Cards' Bruce Arians: Have patience with Eli, Giants offense

How long will it take for Eli Manning to become comfortable and for the New York Giants as a whole to master their transition from the Kevin Gilbride vertical passing attack to the Ben McAdoo West Coast-based offense. Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians has experience with that, having implemented a similar change with quarterback Carson Palmer last season in Arizona.

"I try to never judge a quarterback in a new offense until Week 8," Arians said on Wednesday. "I think it takes a while to get through a number of different style clubs, especially in your division, and swing it back and really see the improvement in the second half of the season."

Palmer, a two-time Pro Bowler now in his 12th season, was new to the West Coast style of offense Arians wanted to run when the 2013 season began. From Week 8 on, Palmer had a passer rating above 100 in five of nine games. He finished the season with a completion rate of 63.3 percent, 4,274 yards passing and a passer rating of 83.9. He threw 22 interceptions, but 13 of those came in Arizona's first seven games. A Week 16 four-interception game against the Seattle Seahawks marred his second-half surge.

Odds are that the Giants would take a similar season from Manning, although hopefully with fewer than 22 interceptions.

"It is very hard for somebody to change after you have been in a system. I did this with Carson Palmer last year. He had been in the same system pretty much nine years and he has ideas, then you are trying to re-program," Arians said. "It is much easier getting a rookie and brainwashing him than it is to take a veteran and change him totally into a new system."

So, what happens when things finally began to click?

"All of a sudden, you could see the guys around him start to get it and play faster and play better. Instead of waiting to see a guy come open, he was throwing guys open," Arians said. "When you are waiting to see a guy come open, you are going to throw interceptions because your eyes are there too soon and too long. When you can throw the ball on time, trust the receiver is going to be there, everything happens a second or a second and a half faster, and that is a lot of time when you are talking about the passing game."

Could a similar thing happen with Manning and the Giants? Well, the Giants don't have Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd catching passes on the outside. The transition made by Palmer, though, has to offer hope to the Giants that things can improve from what they displayed on Monday.