If Eli Manning Wins a Second Superbowl is He a Hall of Famer?

Leave it Skip Bayless to say something controversial. On twitter yesterday Bayless tweeted:

Skip Bayless

If Eli can beat SF at SF, then Brady AGAIN in the Super Bowl, no doubt he’d be considered top 5 QB and Hall of Fame lock. Need to see more.

The question is, is he right?

Would Eli Manning be a Hall of Fame Lock if he could beat Tom Brady twice in the Superbowl. That’s an intriguing possibility, and one that people would have stopped reading at NFLmocks had I wrote anything like that before this season began. I’ve only ever seen one person list Eli Manning as a Hall of Famer before yesterday, and that was only “Eli Manning the darkhorse Hall of Fame candidate if he could win another Superbowl”.

It’s insane what a year can do for a guys perception. Everyone knows that Eli Manning is a winner since his second season (and first full season as a starter) Eli Manning and the New York Giants have not had one season with a losing record (they have had two non-winning seasons as 8-8 teams, one of which got the playoffs). The Giants have been to the playoffs five times since 2005 (05, 06, 07, 08, 11) Eli Manning has also put up some gaudy numbers, though not in comparison to what counts as gaudy in today’s Arena, I mean National Football League. Eli Manning has thrown for at least twenty touchdowns every year from 2005 through 2011, with the last three seasons also eclipsing 4,000 yards. Very few quarterbacks in history have ever thrown for over 4,000 yards and twenty touchdowns in three straight seasons (Tom Brady, for example, is not one of them).

Eli Manning also has an iron man streak going for consecutive starts at the quarterback position despite some nasty injuries. In 2007 Eli Manning separated shoulder he played through in the 2007 season which would have sidelined almost every other quarterback in the league. Here’s a report from ESPN Saying Eli Manning would miss a month of the regular season, at least. (Spoiler alert, he didn’t). In 2009, Eli Manning has plantar fasciatis, an injury that has sidelined Darren McFadden almost the entire season (though it’s a much different injury for running backs who actually have to run more) Though this doesn’t always show up in the stats sheet it could be a pro in the case for Eli Manning in the Hall of Fame if he were to ever win another Superbowl (and especially over Brady).

The other thing other than the numbers that will be in Eli’s favor for the Hall of Fame are is road playoff victories. Right now, Eli Manning is among the career leaders in road playoff victories, tied for first in fact I think, which he can beat this weekend in San Francisco. And these wins are over some impressive quarterbacks. Eli Manning has won road playoff games against Jeff Garcia, Tony Romo, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers.

The other thing that Eli Manning will have in his favor is the fact that when he retires (barring injury) he will shatter almost all of the New York Giants passing records even if we assume he never throws for more than 4,500 yards in a season this will be true. The New York Giants are not the Jacksonville Jaguars, they are a storied N.F.L. franchise.

Lastly, Eli Manning will, you assume based on his previous history, have amassed a large number of come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter. I can not find the statistic, but I believe it’s approaching, or may have eclipsed twenty in his career.

There are of course going to be knocks against Eli Manning, the way the Giants offense is set up with a lot of big time down the field shots and a team that does not run an abundance of screen plays, and also a team that plays in the hardest stadium in the league to throw a football in the winter, Manning will never have a high completion percentage. Even this year where it seemed Manning has made every play to be made his completion percentage for the season was still only 61 percent. Eli Manning also throws a lot of interceptions, what has changed for Manning though are the back-breaking interceptions. Many of the interceptions that he has thrown this year are in impossible situations. For instance in Sunday’s game his interception came when the Giants were in no man’s territory on third down in between punting and going for a very long field goal and his interception was way down the field, almost like a punt. Another knock against Eli is that this year will only be his second Pro Bowl appearance, and he has zero pro bowl starts.

I think Skip Bayless is right. If, and that’s a monster, if Eli Manning can win a second Superbowl with all of the quarterbacks he would have beaten in the playoffs and the fact that he has a terrific young wide receiver corps so he will likely continue to put up big numbers, Eli Manning will be a Hall of Famer. It’s all about perception and two Superbowl victories (especially if it comes this year against Tom Brady) as the underdogs would really put Eli on a new stratosphere. But that’s counting the chickens before they hatch. I think without the second ring though Eli will fall short in the minds of HOF voters.

Thoughts?

Home/NFL Draft