New York Giants QB Eli Manning Deserves Respect in Manning Bowl Rematch

There are many opinions on who or what is an "elite" QB in the NFL. When the term is used, there are a few names that immediately come to mind: Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, or Tom Brady. There are several "franchise" QB's that have yet to reach that "elite" status. Among them is Eli Manning.

He is often overlooked as the kid brother of the toast of the NFL, Peyton Manning. With the upcoming "Manning Bowl," I decided to measure Eli against his older brother just to see how he compares at this stage in his career alongside Peyton. I am in no way advocating that Eli is better or on pace to be, but I am also not crazy enough to make an argument that Eli will surpass Peyton at some point in his career.

But the numbers when comparing their first five full seasons head-to-head are closer than you think. Peyton's overall career stats are impressive, to say the least. They should be. He is arguably a first ballot Hall-of-Fame inductee.

Why not with a line like this: 50,561 yards passing, 369 TD's, 95.3 career QB rating, and 181 INT's (or two TD's for every one INT). Eli's are not as impressive, but they are decent nonetheless: 18,907 yds passing, 128 TD's, 79.3 career rating, and 91 INT's.

To be honest, it is not a fair comparison to begin with, and there are two reasons why.

First, Peyton has played twice as many games as Eli, since he has been the starter for the Colts from day one. Eli began his career six years later and wasn't the opening season game starter until the following season. Peyton has 193 starts under his belt, while Eli only has 90. Peyton has had more than double the opportunity to build stats.

Secondly, it can be argued that Peyton was given full reign of their offense from day one in 1998. It is undetermined whether or not Eli even has the reigns of his offense entirely. In addition, they both lead two entirely different styles of offense on the field. The Colts are a pass heavy team, while the Giants have always been a notorious run first offense.

Considering all of this, it is even more surprising how close the two actually are after each of their respective first five full seasons. Looking at just those first five full seasons, I compared four stats: passing yards, TD's, passer rating, and INT's. From 1998 to 2002, Peyton started every game of those first five seasons.

He racked up 20,618 yds passing, 138 TD's, 85.9 passer rating avg, and 100 INT's. These are very good for a five-year span. What fan wouldn't be happy with that type of production from their starting QB?

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