Eli Manning was a very good quarterback with two rings, but that doesn’t mean he should be in Canton.
I know this is a website dedicated to covering the Chicago Bears, but I need to get this off my chest.
I spent last week in New Orleans covering the Super Bowl for my other job, and, as every year, there was plenty of chatter about who was going to make the upcoming Hall of Fame class. No surprise, the name discussed the most was Eli Manning.
I just need to say this: Eli Manning should not enter the Hall of Fame. I know Eli didn’t make the class this year, but it’s basically a foregone conclusion that he’s going to make it eventually. I just need to say: that’s a mistake.
Eli Manning was a very good quarterback throughout his career and he went on two all-time heaters, but that doesn’t make a Hall of Famer.
Manning played for 16 years, he made 4 Pro Bowls. He never came close to winning an MVP, he never finished top 5 in the MVP voting. Manning spent most of his career as a borderline top ten quarterback, which makes you very good, it does not make you great.
Over the course of Eli’s 234 career starts, the Giants won exactly half his starts. He never led the league in any offensive categories, however he did lead the league in interceptions on three different occasions.
I know the counterpoint to that, but he won two Super Bowls. That he did. Most of the time, if you win two Super Bowls as a quarterback, you make it to Canton. But it doesn’t happen all the time. Jim Plunkett won two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl MVP as well, he’s not in Canton. Why? Because Jim Plunkett wasn’t a great quarterback, he was very good.
In fact, you can argue that Plunkett and Manning are almost identical players when you compare them. Plunkett’s teams also went exactly .500 in games he started. Plunkett and Manning even have identical yards per attempt at 7.0. If you look at their compiled statistics, Manning runs circles around Plunkett.
But Manning came into the league just as the passing era in the NFL launched. Quarterback stats over the last twenty years cannot be compared to passing stats back in the 70s and 80s, but we can compare them compared to their eras thanks to adjusted passing (you can see these at Pro Football Reference). This statistic compares the player’s statistics to their contemporaries. So we know how Plunkett’s numbers looked compared to other QBs of his era, and we can see how Eli Manning’s numbers look compared to the QBs of his era.
In these numbers, 100 is average, anything above is above average (110 is very good, 120 is excellent), and of course, anything below 100 is below average.
Plunkett’s Y/A is 103, Eli’s is 99. Plunkett’s ANY/A is 97, Eli’s is 101. Both of them have a completion percentage of 96. Plunkett’s TD% is 102, Eli’s is 103. Plunkett’s INT% is 94, Eli’s is 95. Both of them have a QB rating of 98.
If we average out those numbers, Plunkett averages a 98.3. Eli? 98.7.
This isn’t to say that if Eli gets in, Plunkett should get in. It’s simply to say that both are very good quarterbacks, but neither are Hall of Fame-level QBs.
There are three things that Eli has that Plunkett doesn’t. One, he played in New York. That shouldn’t matter, but it does. Two, his last name is Manning. That shouldn’t matter, but it does. Third, he beat Tom Brady twice, including the New England Patriots’ attempt to go undefeated.
The win over the 2007 Patriots was an all-time great win. The real MVP of that game was the New York Giants defensive line. They kept Brady under pressure all game and stopped the unstoppable offense.
Manning scored 17 points. Yes, he marched the team down the field and hit Plaxico Burress for the game winning touchdown. A great moment, but Nick Foles brought the Eagles from behind to beat the Patriots in the waning moments of a Super Bowl as well.
How many playoff games did Manning win outside of his two heaters? Zero. Manning had an 8-4 playoff record. That’s excellent. Oh, by the way, Plunkett had an 8-2 playoff record.
Eli Manning had a wonderful career. He has two Super Bowl wins, and he beat the greatest regular season team in the history of the NFL. Those are great accomplishments, but those alone don’t make a Hall of Famer.
Eli will make the Hall of Fame one day, but when he does, it will be a mistake. The only way Eli Manning should be in the Hall of Fame, is if he buys a ticket.