Giants quarterback Eli Manning said he's fine with playing out the final year of his contract without an extension beyond 2015 and that his focus is on improving as offseason workouts begin.
"Yeah, I'm comfortable," Manning said Monday when asked about his contract situation during a conference call with reporters. "I've got a job to do, and that's to play football, and that's my only concern. I never get too caught up with contract stuff.
"The way I look at it, I have one more year and I'm going to play that year and go from there."
The Giants and Manning have yet to make meaningful progress in extension talks. ESPN reported last month that the team is comfortable with Manning playing out the final year of his deal and plans to address the situation next offseason.
Both sides want the two-time Super Bowl MVP to play his entire career with the Giants, and assuming he remains durable and productive, the team can use the franchise player designation next year to keep him off the market while the sides work out a long-term contract.
Manning is scheduled to earn $17 million in salary and count $19.75 million against the salary cap this season after counting more than $20 million against the cap each of the past two seasons, so it's clear the Giants are OK with paying a premium price for their starting quarterback. The franchise tag would not be a much greater salary burden than the one Manning has presented for the past several years now.
In the meantime, Manning said he's enjoying getting back to work as the Giants gather this week for the strength and conditioning phase of the offseason workout program. He joked that it's easier this year than it was last year, when the Giants hired a new offensive coordinator for the first time in nearly a decade and signed more free agents than any other team in the league.
"I recognize more faces than last year," Manning said. "Coming in last year, my first priority was to learn my teammates, probably ahead of learning the offensive playbook."
In the first year with Ben McAdoo as his coordinator, Manning cut his interception total from 2013's league-leading, career-high 27 down to 14. He said his goal, as it is every year, is to finish the season with no more than eight interceptions.
And after a fuss was made last training camp when then-quarterbacks coach Danny Langsdorf said Manning's goal was a completion percentage of 70, Manning (who finished last year at a career-high 63.1) said that was more of a game-by-game goal than a 16-game one.
"I kind of think of it from a game standpoint," Manning said. "I want to be 70 percent in this game. Some games, you might not get it, and for the season it might not be 70 percent, but each game you kind of shoot for that 70 percent."
As he does every year, Manning gathered recently at Duke University to work out with his receivers in the offseason. Victor Cruz, who is still rehabbing from the torn patellar tendon that ended his season in Week 6 last year, was in attendance, and Manning said he thought Cruz benefited even though he can't yet run at full speed.
Manning said they limited Cruz physically but that Cruz's ability to sit in meetings with Manning and the other receivers, hear the plays called and listen to the offense's verbal cues again was important.
"We were doing some different things those last 10 games than we were doing the first six before he got hurt," Manning said.
Manning also said the Duke workouts -- similar to those his brother Peyton does with his wideouts every year -- are a good way to get around the NFL's rules restricting offseason workouts. The most recent collective bargaining agreement between the players and the owners shortened, at the players' behest, the amount of time players are required and allowed to work at the team facility with coaches during the offseason. Manning doesn't like those rules.
"It kind of makes it hard to work with your guys," Manning said. "I think it's kind of ridiculous, at this level, that that's the case. But those are the rules we agreed on, and we have to abide by them. So this is a way to get some extra work in."