Where Does New York Giants QB Eli Manning Rank Among the Game’s Best Quarterbacks?
If you had asked football fans two months ago which team would have won Super Bowl XLVI, they would have said the Green Bay Packers. Or the New Orleans Saints. Or the New England Patriots. Or the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The New York Giants would have been right in the middle of the pack of teams selected, yet after an improbably postseason run in which the Giants defeated four teams who had a better regular season record than them, the Giants are Super Bowl champions for the second time in five seasons.
Eli Manning led a last-minute touchdown drive, just like in Super Bowl XLII, and earned MVP honors for the game.
The victory gave Eli Manning his second Super Bowl trophy. Only Tom Brady (3) and Ben Roethlisberger (2) can equal him among active quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning have also won Super Bowls.
So this raises the question. Where does Eli Manning rank among active quarterbacks?
I think it’s fairly obvious that Eli Manning is not better than Tom Brady. Brady is a three-time Super Bowl champion and a two-time Super Bowl MVP. He’s played in five Super Bowls and played well in all five of them. He’s won two regular season MVP awards, and could have won it this season if not for the Year of the Quarterback. He’s 34 years old and he’s shown no signs of slowing down.
Eli is not as good as his brother. Peyton is the only four-time MVP in NFL history. He’s likely going to retire first, second, or third in every major statistical category. He’s won a Super Bowl and has led the Colts to the postseason 11 times. He doesn’t have the clutch factor as Eli Manning, but he also doesn’t have a defense that frequently rises to the occasion in the postseason. (Peyton missing the 2011 season has no impact on the ranking for me because I expect him to play at an equally high level in 2012.)
Eli is a significant dropoff from Drew Brees. Brees set single-season NFL records in completions (468), completion percentage (71.1 percent), and passing yards (5476) in 2011. He threw 46 touchdowns and posted a 110.6 passer rating. Brees has thrown for at least 4388 yards in six straight seasons, and he will likely retire among the top five quarterbacks in history in attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, and passer rating. He’s also one of the top postseason quarterbacks in history, winning a Super Bowl (and the game’s MVP award) after the 2009 season, and leading the Saints to a combined 68 points in their two losses over the past two seasons.
I think we all could agree that Eli isn’t Aaron Rodgers, who won the NFL MVP award in 2011 after setting a single-season record in passer rating (122.5) and adjusted yards per pass attempt (10.50). Rodgers’ 2011 season is arguably the greatest by a quarterback in league history (definitely in the top five). In 2010, he led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory as the sixth seed, and he threw for four touchdowns in his first-ever playoff game in 2009. The career passer rating leader, Rodgers is a lock for the Hall of Fame if he stays healthy.
Those are the big four quarterbacks. I think we can all agree, Giants fans included, that Eli is not better than Brady, Peyton, Brees, or Rodgers.
But the next tier of quarterbacks, which includes the likes of Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Eli?
I think it’s safe to say that Eli is the best of those three. Rivers puts up great numbers but he hasn’t won in the postseason, despite leading very talented teams year after year. Roethlisberger is a two-time Super Bowl champion, and played in a third, but he doesn’t put up big numbers and he’s been helped by a dominant defense his whole career.
That makes Eli the fifth best quarterback in the NFL.
To me, this one is a no-brainer. I don’t think he is any higher than fifth, and at most, he is one or two spots lower.
Before the season, I wouldn’t have even put Eli in the top ten without really thinking it over. I would have had Rivers (5) and Roethlisberger (6) ahead of him, and maybe Vick, Ryan, or Schaub.
Eli’s never put together consecutive great statistical seasons (his best ever passer ratingis 93.1, which is below the career averages of Brady, Peyton, Brees, and Rodgers), and he’s led his Giants to just 31 combined points in his three one-and-dones in the playoffs.
But Eli’s great regular season in 2011, although helped by the top receiving trio in the NFL, and improbable Super Bowl title (again) vaulted him into the top five quarterbacks in the league. and serious consideration for the Hall of Fame after he retires.
It goes Brady, Peyton, Brees, and then Rodgers. (And you can really switch that order up any way you want.)
There’s a sizeable drop. And Eli is fifth.
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U r an idiot! Eli had 2 guys on offense drafted in the 1 st 2 rounds. Go and look at the players surrouding the other guys on ur list! No one, no one wins with less than Eli! Those other teams build their teams around their qb, the Giants build their team around the defense. Stats are for FFL fools. Eli is 4-1vs Brady, but that doesnt mean anything to u, just.stats. Ridiculous!
You know what Eli is better than Brees, Peyton, Brady, and Rodgers at? Playing under pressure and being clutch.
Eli doesn’t blow it against a 49ers team in the playoffs like BREES
Eli goes into Lambeau Field and destroys RODGERS
Eli doesn’t buckle under pressure every year in the playoffs like PEYTON
Eli leads his teams on last minute super bowl TOUCHDOWN drives, all BRADY does is get his team just far enough so his kicker can win the game for him (just like all 3 of Brady’s SB wins) (which btw are all tainted because of spy gate and the Patriots cheating)
Stats are nice, but what really makes a QB is how he handles himself under pressure. Let Peyton, Brees, Rodgers have their rings…and Brady have his tainted 3 rings. Eli Manning is better than all 4 of them (FACT!) because he has the most important thing a QB can have…. poise.
It’s nice that all of those guys can put up huge regular season numbers against mostly NON-playoff teams. But Eli puts up the numbers in the playoffs against the best teams that the NFL has to offer.
Not to mention Brees and Peyton play in domes. So yeah….
Once Eli wins one more SB going 3-0 in his career, then you will see
I’d be curious to see what happened if Eli played eight games a year in the Super Dome…
But speaking objectively I can’t argue with the spot..Eli is definitely better than Big Ben and Rivers, but has yet to surpass the other four.
i have to agree with wrong and i would just like to say that the playoffs are what matters not the crappy teams that the packers, saints, and patriots verse and Eli is 4-1 against brady, 2-0 is the SB he also doesn’t quit on his team after one playoff lose not to say any names (brees) also if it wasn’t for the G-men’s defense in week 13 eli would have won that game and to prove it look what happen when the giants got there D together in the divisional round and finally suck it colts fan because on the BIG stage where stats actually matter the score is 2-1 ELI
and BTW eli is one of five qb’s to ever get 2 SB MVP’s and he is the only quarterback who ever lived to go to, win, and get MVP in 2 SB’s ntm the fact that they where both against the supposed best qb of our time
i have to agree with (wrong) and i would just like to say that the playoffs are what matters not the crappy teams that the packers, saints, and patriots verse and Eli is 4-1 against brady, 2-0 is the SB he also doesn’t quit on his team after one playoff loss not to say any names (brees) also if it wasn’t for the G-men’s defense in week 13 eli would have won that game and to prove it look what happen when the giants got there D together in the divisional round and finally suck it colts fans because on the BIG stage where stats actually matter the score is 2-1 ELI. and BTW eli is one of five qb’s to ever get 2 SB MVP awards and he is the only qb who has ever been to, won, and get MVP in 2 SB NTM they where against the supposed best qb of our time.