Yeah no shit, but he also helped win games. No one is saying he's a stud going into age 37, but there was a multitude of ways they could have handled this.
They could have easily side stepped all of this by trading him to the Jags when Coughlin was OPENLY stating that they'd take him. Eli would get to go chase his last ring, and you get to throw Geno to the wolves and eventually move on to Webb.
They had obviously been considering benching Eli for weeks. They should have moved him when they had the chance, but they didn't and now they look like even bigger dumbasses.