You may not have noticed because he did it on a 6-10 New York Giants team, but Eli Manning had one of the best seasons of his career in 2014. As rare as it is to say this about a quarterback entering his 12th season in the NFL, all signs point to Manning having a career year in 2015.

A season ago the Giants offense got off to a slow start under new offensive coordinator Bob McAdoo. New York spent much of the preseason looking lost offensively as Manning and the Giants struggled to move the ball in their new West-Coast style offense. However, when things clicked for Manning and the Giants offense, they started to show flashes of explosiveness.

When the season ended, Manning finished with 30 touchdowns, just one short of his career high of 31, in 2010. Perhaps even more important to the Giants, their fans, and the quarterback who threw 27 interceptions in 2013, Manning finished 2014 with just 14 picks. While many found it laughable when McAdoo suggested he wanted Manning to finish with around a 70 percent completion percentage, there were games when Manning was right there, and he finished the season with a career best 63.1 percent  completion percentage.

McAdoo’s new West-Coast offense took time to work in New York, but once Manning and his receivers got comfortable with the concepts, it allowed Manning to pass for 4,410 yards, his second best total of his career.

The statistics on their own are impressive enough, but the fact that Manning and the Giants had the kind of year they did offensively, behind one of the worst offensive lines in football, while still learning the offense, shows the kind of potential the Giants have on the offensive side of the ball moving into 2015.

The Giants won’t be rolling out one of the top offensive lines in 2015, but they should be much improved, and better set up to provide a run game to help Manning keep drives going. As explosive as the Giants were at times a year ago, the inconsistency of the run game effected their ability to sustain drives.

This season the Giants hope to have Geoff Schwartz back from injury, and the drafting of Ereck Flowers will allow them to move Justin Pugh inside to guard, where they hope he’ll have more success than he did at right tackle a season ago. Last year’s second-round selection Weston Richburg will move back to his natural position and take over as the starting center in 2015. If the Giants can keep this group on the field with Flowers and Will Beatty, they’ll have a much improved offensive line, and should be much better in the run game.

This bigger, stronger offensive line could still leave a lot to be desired in pass protection, but an improved run game will only help the passing attack. The pass protection should be tougher on the interior offensive line, so if Flowers and Beatty can keep explosive pass rushers from getting around on the outside, Manning should have a lot more time to work than he did in 2014.

The air game won’t just be helped along by an improved offensive line, as the Giants improved the depth at receiver, and signed running back Shane Vereen, who will be the best pass catching option the Giants have had out of the backfield since Tiki Barber. Vereen is a perfect complement to Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams, and will give Manning a check down option that is going to keep linebackers very busy.

Of all the returning players or additions, none of them will be bigger than the return of Victor Cruz. The Giants have been very optimistic about the return of Cruz lately, despite some earlier reports that he might not be ready by the beginning of the season.

While some are concerned Cruz won’t be 100 percent ready to start the year, the reality is he doesn’t have to be. As long as Cruz can get back to himself at some point during the season, the Giants offense has enough weapons to allow him to work himself back in slowly.

When Cruz does return to form, expect him to be dynamic. Cruz struggled to prove he should be the team’s No. 1 receiver before his injury, because that’s not what he does best. When teams can key on Cruz, they can take him away. However, Cruz has been at his best as an explosive playmaker when he hasn’t been the Giants top option. It was when teams were focused on Hakeem Nicks that Cruz was driving teams crazy with huge plays while at times looking like he couldn’t be covered.

Make no mistake about it, Cruz is no longer the Giants top option, and New York’s new top option, Odell Beckham Jr will only make Cruz more dangerous. At his very best, Nicks wasn’t nearly the player that Beckham Jr is. Beckham is faster, a better route runner, and has better hands. He is a star, and if he’s the player we saw during the second half of the season in 2014, he’s the best receiver in football.

We’ve already seen what the dynamic abilities of Beckham Jr could do for Manning, and it’s likely his effect on Cruz could be just as dramatic. Beckham is the kind of receiver teams worry about and game plan for, and as teams begin to forget about Cruz, he and Manning will make them pay.

Teams are going to find it very difficult to try to contain Beckham Jr and Cruz, but when they do, Manning will still have Rueben Randle, Larry Donnell, and Shane Vereen sneaking out of the backfield to get the ball to.

If the Giants defense can be competitive, New York can be contenders in the NFC, because all signs point to year-two in McAdoo’s offense being the best statistical season of Eli Manning’s career.