You are obviously following up on the theme ESPN started. I followed up in the ‘Respect’ article on the main page, but never really gave an opinion on where Eli rates.
I think, quite honestly, what you are looking at is a group of historically good young QBs.
I have no argument with Roethlisberger as No. 1. I am taking Eli second.

A quarterback’s ultimate job is to win. While Romo has put up the better overall numbers, he has failed at the biggest moments (and yes, the dropped snap counts). Eli has proven that he can win when it matters most. Until Romo does that Eli goes in front of him.

I love Eli, but I don’t know how I’d rate him compared to those other guys. Romo to me is the second coming of Brett Favre – physically gifted, can and will make plays that few other guys can make, is gonna put up monster stats year after year, but he’s got a penchant for making dumb mistakes at bad times. I’m not willing to put the “can’t win the big one” tag on him yet, b/c Eli started out 0-2 in “big games” and looked AWFUL in his first playoff game, so I think we need to give Romo some more time.

I’m a big fan of Big Ben. I really didn’t want the Giants to draft him in ‘04 – I didn’t think he was gonna do much in the NFL, and boy was I wrong. I like to draw comparisons to former players, but I can’t really think of any in his case, he almost sets a prototype. I think he IS good enough to win games with his arm, but he’s smart enough to realize he doesn’t have to, so he avoids making the mistakes that Romo and Eli sometimes make.

I’m also turning into a fan of Cutler. He’s so good outside the pocket, and he’s getting better inside the pocket. Reminds me a bit of Steve Young in that regard. I also heard someone compare him to Tarkenton, but I never saw Tarkenton play so I can’t really comment on that.

Rivers, on the other hand, I don’t really think is that great. He has so many weapons on the Chargers, if you put any of the other 4 on that team I think they’d be putting up Peyton-type numbers. Yea, he played hurt last year, but like thad said, the Chargers lost the game. I just don’t think he has the arm strength to be an elite QB in the league. Reminds me a little of Pennington, but I don’t think he’s quite as smart as Chad.

Finally, Eli, as I’ve said before reminds me of Simms. A guy who nobody thought was tough enough turns out to be as tough as they come, he’s the prototypical “game manager” – which isn’t a knock. The guy can win. Of all the guys I’ve named, Simms was the only one who was the starting QB for 2 teams that won a Super Bowl (yea, yea, Hostetler, but I think the Giants would have won that with Simms, don’t you?). He might not put up the flashiest numbers, but he’s a winner. I like that.

If I were to rank them, right now, it’s be 1) Big Ben, 2a) Eli, 2b) Romo, 4) Cutler, 5) Rivers. Ask me again in a year and Cutler might be #1.

but since you had such a thoughtful post i’ll kep it to myself for now.

to be as objective as possible, though, i’d say you can’t go wrong with any of them EXCEPT rivers. i dont like what i’ve seen from him. pretty sure his career has peaked. and yes, starting a team from scratch, probably go with cutler.

P-E-Y-T-O-N