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by Aaron Poole:
by Aaron Poole:
First off, let me say that having a discussion about whether or not Eli Manning belongs in the Hall of Fame halfway through his career is absurd. It takes a lifetime of achievement to get into the Hall of Fame. With that being said, I’ll lay out why I think it’s inept to believe Eli isn’t a Hall of Fame quarterback at this point in his career.
The biggest reason why he is currently a potential Hall of Fame QB is obvious: he has won two Super Bowls against one of the most successful teams of the past decade (more of a testament to the Giants’ defense than Eli, though). Regardless of his shortcomings, winning two Super Bowls is no easy feat.
However, two Super Bowl wins aren’t a guarantee for the Hall of Fame. Jim Plunkett has two wins but is not in the Hall of Fame. Kurt Warner and Brett Favre only have one Super Bowl win with two and one losses, respectively, and someone would get hit in the head for suggesting they won’t be in the Hall of Fame one day. Hell, Fran Tarkenton is a Hall of Famer with three Super Bowl losses, and Jim Kelly with four Super Bowl losses. Obviously, Super Bowl wins and appearances alone are only a part of the puzzle for a Hall of Fame nomination.
Anyone who has watched Eli play knows that he is horrible under pressure. He fumbles. He tries to throw left-handed passes. He throws into double coverage. Anything he can do wrong under pressure, he does it. However, anyone remember watching Brett Favre? Brett Favre is the interception king. He threw 336 interceptions in his career. That is a staggering 59 more than George Blanda, who is second on the list.
Despite his flaws, he found ways to win games. He was 186-112 (62.4%) as a starter. Fran Tarkenton only won 51% of his games (124-109-6). Right now, Eli has won 58% of his games (69-50) and only has one losing season: his rookie season in which he only become the starter after Tom Coughlin realized Kurt Warner was old. Jim Plunkett, the only two Super Bowl winning QB not in the Hall of Fame, had a very rocky career, only winning 50% of his games and having a miserable 67.5 QB rating.
Currently, Eli has an 82.1 QB rating which clearly puts him ahead of Plunkett in regards to the metric of QB skill. He also has a higher QB rating than Troy Aikman (81.6), John Elway (79.9), Terry Bradshaw (70.9), Bob Griese (77.1), Fran Tarkenton (80.4), and Bart Starr (80.5). All but Aikman and Elway played in an era when all but tackling receivers was legal, so their seemingly low ratings are far better than they seem. I simply added them to be complete. The only Hall of Fame quarterbacks with higher QB ratings are Steve Young (96.8), Joe Montana (92.3), Roger Staubach (83.4), Jim Kelly (84.4), and Len Dawson (82.6). To keep this short, I’m only including Super Bowl winning Hall of Fame quarterbacks. There are 13 more QBs in the Hall of Fame without any Super Bowl wins.
Another argument I see against Eli Manning is the number of interceptions he throws every season. I agree that he throws many interceptions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees. There are some other examples of current (we all know Favre isn’t truly retired) QBs who also have a hard time remember their team’s colors. You’ll be hard pressed to find an argument against Peyton and Drew for the Hall of Fame. The fact they have thrown tons of interceptions won’t even come up because they have so many passing yards under their belts. This is by offensive design. The Giants have always had a solid run game by their design. This year, the Giants went with a more pass heavy offense because Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks were on fire, and their run game was nearly non-existent. Eli answered the call. He had a 92.9 QB rating this season and fell just 67 yards short of the 5,000 yard milestone.
The most influential trait of Eli is his ability to win games. This is true with any modern QB. So many games are won by drives in the final minutes. Being able to take command of your offense and drive down the field while managing the clock in the closing minutes of a game is crucial to success in the NFL in this day and age. In the early 2000s, no one did this better than the Patriots. I can’t even count the number of games (I’m sure I could look it up) the Patriots won off of Vinatieri’s foot in the closing seconds of a game.
To keep the comeback comparison brief, I’ll just use Tom Brady (my stomach just churned). Brady has 31 (+4 post season) career 4th quarter comebacks, and he has 124 career wins. So 25% of his wins have been because of his ability to close out games. Eli has 20 (+5 post season) comebacks under his belt. With 69 career wins, this means 28.9% of his wins have been determined by his ability to drive his offense down the field.
I’m going to stop here before I spend the next 90+ hours looking up NFL statistics. I’ll close with one simple question: Do you still think Eli is over-rated?
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