Eli Manning Proves You Don't Need to Be the Best to Get Paid Most

The New York Giants had to sign Eli Manning to a contract extension. They either had to sign him this offseason or next season as free agency loomed.

But did they have to make him the highest paid player in the NFL?

Eli wants to stay with the Giants. He demanded a trade to New York at the 2004 draft, so I think it's safe to say he would work with the Giants to get a deal done. The Giants could have even placed the franchise tag on him at the end of this season, which is when he was scheduled to become a free agent.

Why not see what kind of quarterback Eli is this year without Plaxico Burress and then decide about his future with your organization?

I think football fans are outraged that someone who really isn't that good is now the highest paid player in the NFL.

Giants fans will say he won a Super Bowl and that is the only thing that matters. I would like to know if those same Giants fans think Trent Dilfer or Brad Johnson should have been the highest paid quarterback after they lead their respective teams to Super Bowl titles.

Face it Giants fans: Eli got lucky for one season.

Consider this. In the other three years he led the Giants to the playoffs he was one and done each time out. Two of those game occurred at home and two were losses to division rival, Philadelphia.

Stop me when it sounds like I am talking about a player who deserves to be the highest paid player in the NFL.

In those three playoff losses he led the Giants to 31 points, which included a shutout at home to the Carolina Panthers. Yes, the highest paid player in the NFL was shutout at home in a playoff game. No points, but he did throw three picks.

They guy has never won a home playoff game, and yet somehow he rips off three in a row on the road to get to the Super Bowl where David Tyree made the luckiest play in Super Bowl history.

The 2007 Super Bowl run was nothing short of a miracle.

Eli played in sunny Tampa for the first game and then actually played well in Dallas the next game.

In the NFC Championship he played in frigid conditions and looked lost out there. He did not throw any touchdowns and won because Brett Favre gift-wrapped a pick in overtime. Young Eli trotted off the bench, handed it off twice and threw an incomplete pass only to get bailed out by a 47-yard field goal from Lawrence Tynes.

But I guess that’s what the highest paid player in the NFL does.

Outside of the magical run he had in 2007 when everything went his way, Eli has been nothing short of ordinary. He screams mediocrity.

Eli has played five seasons in the NFL and spent the last four as the Giants' starting quarterback.

Throughout his career he had one year in which he completed 60 percent of his passes. He has never thrown for 4,000 yards or 25 touchdowns in a season.

He has not protected the ball well either. He has thrown only 98 touchdowns against 74 interceptions, which means he is throwing 1.3 touchdowns for every one pick. I'm sorry, but the highest player in the NFL should never have numbers like this.

Even more glaring is his career quarterback rating, which is 76.1. That number included his career-high rating from last year, which was 86.4. And how mediocre is that rating? Well let's just say it put him behind Shaun Hill and Seneca Wallace.

That doesn't scream, "Show me the money!"

I really do understand why the Giants felt compelled to sign the lesser of the two Manning's. But like the rest of the football world, I do not understand why the Giants shelled out this much money and made him the highest paid player in the NFL.

I guess this can be considered the second miracle in Eli’s career.