If Eli had great hair, perfect bone structure in his face and a super model for a wife he would be mentioned as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the league. Right up there with Tom Brady and Drew Brees, and probably ahead of his brother Peyton.
Let’s start by comparing Eli and Brady since that seems to be the current debate. No doubt Brady is an elite quarterback, one of the best of all time and a future Hall of Famer. In Brady’s first seven years as a full-time quarterback for the New England Patriots he passed for 26,364 yards and 197 touchdowns (50 of those coming in his amazing 2007 campaign).
Comparing that with Eli’s first seven years in the league, he has more passing yards, 26,536, and 18 less touchdown passes, 179. Now you could make the argument that today’s quarterbacks are putting up bigger numbers than they were during Brady’s first seven years. But you could also say that the New York Giant’s offense isn’t one that relies on Eli throwing for 300 yards and four touchdowns a game.
Brady plays in an offense that is built to put up astronomical numbers, like 50 touchdowns in a season, which is ridiculous. Eli plays on a team that is more defensive oriented. While they’re running game wasn’t great this year (last in the league), they are still a team that requires getting the ground game going to set up the pass game.
Comparing the stats you can definitely make the case for why Eli should be considered a top quarterback. So why does the public still view him as mediocre?
His brother is the biggest thing holding him back from being considered elite. Peyton has been labeled for years as the greatest signal caller of this era. No one manages a game from under center, or five feet behind him, better than Peyton.
Living in the shadow of your bigger brother is difficult. Getting out from under that shadow can be even more difficult. The expectations for Eli coming into the league were certainly unattainable. With this latest Super Bowl victory he could now be considered even greater than his brother.
While it will take a few more outstanding seasons and possibly another Super Bowl to establish that feat, he certainly isn’t far behind. It really just depends on how you perceive greatness. If you believe regular season stats are a true testament to a players’ elite status, then Eli may not deserve to be in that discussion. If you believe it’s based on their postseason success, then Eli is at the top of the list. He’s 7-1 in the postseason and has two Super Bowl MVP trophies.
The only thing keeping Eli from being considered an elite quarterback is Eli himself. He doesn’t have the personality of a Tom Brady, Drew Brees or even his brother. He is perceived as a quiet guy that just does his job and does it exceptionally well. He’s not going to put up huge numbers like any of the aforementioned quarterbacks, but as we saw this year he can win a game when it matters.
Eli is an awkward kind of guy. He doesn’t seem to enjoy the spotlight. Watching him say, “I’m going to Disney World,” after this year’s Super Bowl was almost sickening to see because it’s so awkward. He doesn’t seem to know how to let loose and entertain the public, which isn’t his job by the way.
His job is to win Super Bowls, and he’s won two in the past five years. It’s time we take the blinders off and realize he’s for real. As quarterback numbers are increasing because of the new rules that hurt defenses, Eli’s numbers are going up with the rest of them. He was 67 yards away from 5,000 passing yards on the year. And now that he has some great receivers to surround him in Hicks, Cruz and Manningham (Side note: The Giant’s receivers are the reason they won the Super Bowl and the Patriots receivers are the reason they lost) he’ll be even more productive in years to come.
The era of Peyton and Brady are coming to an end. The time for Eli is now. He needs to start dating some hot swim suit model, take on a couple of commercials that show his funny side (if there is one) and maybe get arrested or something. That seems to be what the media view with greatness. Not the fact that he’s a winner and deserves to be at the top of the list of elite quarterbacks in this quarterback league.
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