Why Eli Manning Should Be Compared to Tom Brady, Not Peyton Manning

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has the singular pleasure of being the younger brother of one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, the Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning.

Because of this, it's hard not to compare him to his older brother even though the similarities are quite thin, beyond the two being overall No. 1 draft picks and related by blood.

Actually, Manning should more accurately be compared to his opponent and counterpart in this year's Super Bowl matchup, the New England Patriots' Tom Brady.

Brady was the Patriots' sixth-round draft pick in 2000, and won the starting job in 2001 after stepping in for an injured Drew Bledsoe early in the season.

However, the parallels between Brady's time with the Patriots and Manning's time in New York are quite clear, despite their disparate pedigrees.

Peyton spent much of his time in Indianapolis with the same cast of characters around him. He had time to develop long-term chemistry with his receivers and thus helped their job security.

In New England and New York, Brady and the younger Manning have dealt with a rotating group of receivers and nothing seems entirely the same from one season to the next.

But the one thing that has remained the same on their teams are the quarterbacks.

New additions to the team have to adapt to Manning and Brady, not the other way around. They have a system in which they operate, and while changes to that system are necessary season after season, it's gotten to the point that both teams' offenses flow directly through them.

This wasn't always the case with Eli, who spent much of his early career dodging criticism that he'd never have the poise, confidence and overall skill set to be a successful starting quarterback.

He's slowly come to silence those critics over the years, starting with his team's 2008 Super Bowl victory over the Patriots.

Since that time, Manning has become an ever-stronger force to contend with, culminating with his career-best 2011 season in which he threw for 4,933 yards, 29 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

Eli isn't a typical No. 1 overall draft pick, in that he wasn't expected to be a world-beater right out of the box like his older brother. Peyton struggled in his first year, with the Colts ending the 1998 season with a 3-13 record, but they were 13-3 the following year thanks to him.

For a No. 1 overall draft pick, Eli has had to work very hard to earn the respect of the media and fans, the same as Brady, whose sixth-round selection did not come with the assumption he'd someday become the player we know him to be today.

Besides, it's Brady who is Manning's competition in the Super Bowl, and he deserves only to be compared to him headed into this game, not to his older brother who didn't even play a single snap in 2011.

Eli's success means that he can step out of his older brother's shadow and enter the wide world of NFL quarterbacks, rather than just be pigeonholed as "Eli, brother of Peyton." He deserves to be compared to his peers, and right now, Peyton isn't one of them. Brady is.