Super Bowl MVP 2012: The Best Is Yet to Come for Eli Manning

Eli Manning has had a strange career.

That's the best word I can think of to describe it. Manning's career with the New York Giants has seen a lot of ups and downs, twists and turns, failures and triumphs. It's been a weird thing to behold.

At some point, you've always had to figure that things were going to level out and that Manning would then be on his way to having one of the league's all-time great careers.

This could have happened after the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2008, but it didn't. Manning was better from 2008-2010 than he was in his first three years as a starter from 2005-2007, but he wasn't great. He was solid, nothing more.

It looks like 2011 is going to change everything. When we look back on Manning's career years from now, we're probably going to look at 2011 as the year he finally turned a corner.

Manning had the best regular season of his career this past season. He passed for nearly 5,000 yards, threw 29 touchdown passes and only 16 interceptions. He was particularly great in the fourth quarter, leading the Giants to a handful of victories that they probably shouldn't have achieved.

It all culminated in Sunday's Super Bowl. Manning was brilliant, completing 30 of his 40 passes for 296 yards and a touchdown. Naturally, he led the Giants on a fourth-quarter comeback that ultimately sunk the Patriots by the final of 21-17.

He was named the Super Bowl MVP. Manning now has two of those—just as many as Tom Brady and one more than his older brother, Peyton.

Now would be a good time to note that Manning is only 31. He still has quite a few years left to play.

There's no reason to think these years won't be great years. It is no fluke that Manning had the best regular season of his career and followed it up with a magical postseason. He played better than he ever has because he's a better quarterback now than he's ever been.

When you watched Manning before, you waited for him to make crippling mistakes. This was true even after he and the Giants won the Super Bowl, as Manning struggled to rid himself of his turnover problem.

Now we watch Manning waiting for him to do something miraculous. More often than not, he provides.

This is a simple matter of him being a lot smarter and a lot more accurate than he used to be. You rarely see him sling passes into double- or triple-coverage like he used to, and even when he does he puts the ball in a place where only his receiver can catch it.

The guy just knows what to do every time he drops back to pass. You couldn't say that about him before.

It helps that Manning has a trio of very good receivers to throw the ball to. Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham make his job much easier. Luckily for Manning, all three of them are in their mid-20s. As long as they're in New York, they'll help Manning out.

However, it would be doing Manning a disservice if we assumed he'll only be good as long as he has good receivers to throw to. He's done enough to prove he's better than that. He's done enough to prove he has what it takes to be great no matter who he's throwing to.

He's done enough to prove he's elite.

What we've just seen was Year One of Manning's elite phase. Judging from what we've seen from quarterbacks like Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, eliteness is not something that comes and goes. Once you've got it, you've got it.

So I hope you're ready. The elite version of Eli Manning is here to stay.