Kornheiser on Eli Manning

During Monday night's game, the ESPN crew was discussinng how it has to be difficult for Eli Manning to be in Peyton's shadow and try to live up to his accomplishments.
Tony K agreed, but added, if he wasn't Peyton's brother, he wouldn't have been the top pick and be making the kind of money he is.
Tirico and Jaws jumped all over Tony, saying he was way off base.
They went to a commercial and I don't know if they picked up the debate.
Kornheiser is right. Eli was inflated because he's Peyton's bro. Not saying he doesn't have talent, but if he had the same skill set and a different last night coming out of college, he wouldn't have had the hype and draft position.

 

I agree with Kornheiser to a point, though I'm not sure how much that improved his draft status.

The Giants definitely should have stayed put and drafted Roethlisberger. But I'm glad they didn't.

 

Eli's not the only Manning whose reputation has been bolstered by Peyton. Ever since Peyton got into the league, I started hearing about how Archie Manning was a great quarterback in his day. I never heard that before Peyton arrived.

Archie is ranked 50th all time in completions. He's not in the top 50 in any other meaningful statistical category (TDs, comp. %, yards, wins). He never led the league in TDs, only finished in the top 10 three times in a 15-year career (and this was when there were 26 or 28 teams in the league, not 32) and only topped 2,000 yards passing in four of his 15 seasons.

This was a great QB?

 

I've heard that before, accompanied by a lot of excuse-making about how horrible the teams he played for were. Archie Manning was definitely held back by playing for terrible teams his entire career, but his legend has defitely outgrown what he actually did on the field.

 

Archie is more legendary for his college career, but to be fair, he played on a lot of bad New Orleans teams...

I think TK is 100 percent right. If Eli wasn't Peyton's brother, no way does he go No. 1 in the draft.

 

Ernie Accorsi had it set in his mind that Eli was God.

Only thing left to find out is whether it'll be viewed in the future as a modest mistake . . . or a huge one.

He sure ain't Unitas, Ernie . . . or Peyton . . .

. . . or Tony Romo, for that matter.

And anywhere below Tony Romo ain't #1 slot territory . . . sorry.

 

The Chargers got Philip Rivers, Shawne Merriman and Nate Kaeding for Eli...

That's one of the best NFL trades of the past decade. Three Pro Bowlers for a vastly overrated quarterback? Not a bad deal...

 

And that allowed Roethlisberger to slip to the Steelers. I don't mind that one bit.

 

All the pundits kept talking about the "good lineage" and how that was going to translate into NFL stardom...whoops...

 

In Archie's defense, the Saints were really, really bad. Their record during his time there was 45 - 114 -3 . And he had 5 different head coaches in those 10 years.

Kind of hard to have all time numbers playing on a team like that.

 

They also said that Rivers was the one most ready to step right in and play, followed closely by Manning and that Roethlisberger was going to need a lot more time to develop.

Then Charlie Batch tears up his knee in August while Roethlisberger has a strong pre-season to move up to No. 2. Tommy Maddox gets hurt in week two and suddenly Roethlisberger is a starter a month or two ahead of Manning and two years ahead of Rivers.

 

While you guys are ripping Eli, the Giants just won their fourth straight game.

With a QB, a lot has to do with the system. Roethlisberger played with a great defense and great running game and won a Super Bowl (Trent Dilfer ring a bell?).

It might not be fair to blame him, but Rivers hasn't won a title with the Chargers and started out the year poorly.

Eli might be a bust, but give him at least a few more years.