- Jul 26, 2002
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... is a prisoner of the moment. Seriously. This is ridiculous. All I hear EVERYONE talking about on ESPN, local radio, fans etc... is how Eli Manning has to be considered an elite quarterback now. This is ridiculous. Eli Manning is this. A good quarterback, probably top 10, who appears to be clutch right now. But overall, from a talent standpoint, he is not a top 5 QB. He's at the bottom of the top 10, imo.
Let me illustrate my point.
First of all, I think we can all agree he has a pretty solid stable of wide receivers. Probably one of the top teams. Cruz has turned out to be a star and Hakeem Nicks is a very talented WR.
He was nominated to the pro bowl in the NFC. At the time of him being voted in he had 26 TD's and 16 INT's. Those aren't ELITE numbers, in my opinion. Granted, he did go on a nice run the last 2 games and into the playoffs. I'll give him that. But to call him elite we have to look at him as a total player. An elite QB to me takes a team that isn't very good and makes them a playoff team, ala Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
Eli over the last 4 years hovers just below a 62% completion percentage, serviceable but NOT elite. He threw for 5000 yards this year. So what. So did 3 other guys, in a time when it had hardly ever been done before. The only thing that proves to me is defenses give up more passing yards to EVERY QB, not just Eli. Oh and he threw a ton of passes. 590 attempts, by far the most in his career.
The previous two years he threw 58 TD's and 39 INT's. They aren't horrible numbers, but the INT's take him out of the elite category. As he has shown over his career, he is a good, serviceable QB that makes a lot of mistakes.
And my last point, the most important. If the 49ers hadn't fumbled two punt returns and basically gave the win to the Giants (who did VERY little offensively) the Giants would be out of the playoffs and nobody would be talking about him being elite. But because the 49ers screwed up and the Giants defense is pretty damn good, people give Eli more credit than he deserves. He had very little to do with that win.
Eli is a good quarterback with great talent around him. If you put Phillip Rivers, Matthew Stafford or a good deal of other quarterbacks on that team, you'd probably be in a pretty similar position. Eli is good. Eli is not elite.
Let me illustrate my point.
First of all, I think we can all agree he has a pretty solid stable of wide receivers. Probably one of the top teams. Cruz has turned out to be a star and Hakeem Nicks is a very talented WR.
He was nominated to the pro bowl in the NFC. At the time of him being voted in he had 26 TD's and 16 INT's. Those aren't ELITE numbers, in my opinion. Granted, he did go on a nice run the last 2 games and into the playoffs. I'll give him that. But to call him elite we have to look at him as a total player. An elite QB to me takes a team that isn't very good and makes them a playoff team, ala Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
Eli over the last 4 years hovers just below a 62% completion percentage, serviceable but NOT elite. He threw for 5000 yards this year. So what. So did 3 other guys, in a time when it had hardly ever been done before. The only thing that proves to me is defenses give up more passing yards to EVERY QB, not just Eli. Oh and he threw a ton of passes. 590 attempts, by far the most in his career.
The previous two years he threw 58 TD's and 39 INT's. They aren't horrible numbers, but the INT's take him out of the elite category. As he has shown over his career, he is a good, serviceable QB that makes a lot of mistakes.
And my last point, the most important. If the 49ers hadn't fumbled two punt returns and basically gave the win to the Giants (who did VERY little offensively) the Giants would be out of the playoffs and nobody would be talking about him being elite. But because the 49ers screwed up and the Giants defense is pretty damn good, people give Eli more credit than he deserves. He had very little to do with that win.
Eli is a good quarterback with great talent around him. If you put Phillip Rivers, Matthew Stafford or a good deal of other quarterbacks on that team, you'd probably be in a pretty similar position. Eli is good. Eli is not elite.
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