The Eli Elite Debate
Out from the shadows of big brother Peyton Manning comes Eli. He just capped off the best regular season of his career with his second Super Bowl win. Like last time, he faced Tom Brady and won. He also was MVP again. But this one felt different from the jump.
Eli fell just 67 yards shy of joining Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Matt Stafford as quarterbacks who threw for over 5,000 yards this season. A feat only Dan Marino and Drew Brees had accomplished prior to the 2011 season. Eli threw for almost half his season total in the fourth quarter of games which broke a record. He also was credited with seven fourth quarter comebacks this season. This was without a doubt an all-time impressive year (including both regular season and playoffs). So let the debate begin.The first thing to do when beginning the debate is to define "Elite". The word is defined as "A group of people considered to be the best in a particular society or category."
So we're asking if Eli, plain and simple, is one of the best. The next step would be to decide the criteria for being the best. Is it Super Bowl rings? Clutch moments? Statistical achievements? All those must factor a role into the equation. Often people lump longevity into the discussion. That's a mistake unless you're talking about all-time greats. We want to know if Eli is one of the absolute best right now. Aaron Rodgers has one dominating post season to go with one amazing regular season and he is definitely considered elite.
So who is in this elite group other Aaron Rodgers? Drew Brees has records for passing yards in a season and highest completion percentage in a season. He also has a Super Bowl to his credit. I'd say he's elite. Tom Brady has five Super Bowl appearance, earning three victories. He was also named Super Bowl MVP twice. Brady has the single season record for passing touchdowns and is a two-time regular season MVP. He has to go down in the elite category. The other player on the bubble is Eli's brother, Peyton. If Peyton is healthy, he's definitely amongst the elite. Ben Roethlisberger is a guy with two Super Bowl wins (one MVP) in three appearances. However, he has been putting nice regular season stats together lately. He has been injured and was not the instrumental force in his first Super Bowl win. From there, you get into a list of what I call "Stat Warriors."
They're guys that have put up nice numbers with nothing to show for it. The list includes Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan and Matt Stafford. They do not belong in the elite discussion because they have little or no playoff success.
It's easy to say Eli Manning out-played Tom Brady twice on the game's biggest stage. The truth is Brady was facing a much better defense than Eli faced. Brees, Rodgers and Brady are the backbone of their respective teams. Eli has proven to be more than reliable but the pass rush of the Giants is their biggest weapon. I do not want to knock Eli for playing on a team with a good defense, but that is part of the reason Big Ben is not in the same category as the others. Eli Manning is an excellent quarterback who looks to be in the Hall of Fame upon retirement. Being labeled "elite" should be an exclusive thing. When team's become more concerned with Manning than their defensive line he will be in the elite class. Right now, Eli (joined by Roethlisberger) is one notch below.
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