How many years has he been a full time starter in the league? How many times have the Giants reached the playoffs?…………..Must be the off season.

That anyone would want to replace Eli. How quickly we forget.

I’m not saying we should dump Eli, that’s ridiculous. But I don’t think we should be blindly defending him either. He’s QBed us to 4 straight playoffs, true. But two of those were at home, and his poor play in both of them pretty much ended any chance we had of winning. He also lost in the first round 2 years ago, though he didn’t play terribly in that one. His career regular season passer rating is 76.1, his career postseason passer rating is 77.6.

He’s an inconsistent QB who put together 4 spectacular games in a row (5 if you count the last regular season game last year), but has been more or less average the rest of his career. In this, his best season, he was 14th in the league in passer rating, 19th in Completion %, 17th in passing yards, 10th in TDs, and 20th in Yards per Attempt. That was all accomplished while playing behind one of the most dominant lines in the league and with an historic rushing attack.

Again, I don’t think they should drop Eli right this second, but I’d be wary about giving him a lengthy, pricey extension either. I just don’t think he’s an elite QB, and I don’t think he’s worth Peyton/Brady money, when other options could probably accomplish what Eli can accomplish. I’ll always appreciate last year’s playoff run, and I’ll always love Eli for what he did in the Super Bowl, but I just don’t know how confident I am in him repeating that performance.

Sometimes I don’t know what to make of Eli.

He lead the Giants to what is probably the single greatest moment in the history of their franchise…. but what if David Tyree drops that pass?

CJMulrain really nailed it with the stats— they are not “elite level” and Eli has had talent around him.

When Phil Simms lead the Giants his numbers were never great. That was a reflection of the low risk system that he played in. With Simms you knew he could take his game to another level. You knew that most of the time he was playing a deliberatly conservative brand of football. At the same time, you knew that if the situation called for it, Simms could open it up on offense and through the ball around the field and generate points.

Dave Brown did not have that ability. When the pressure was on, Dave Brown was not going to win games for us. Whatever his statistics were, you could watch Dave Brown play and know that he could not take over a game if he needed to.

The odd thing about Eli Manning is, sometimes he appears to have game dominating talent and sometimes he doesn’t. I could ignore the numbers— and the playoff losses— if I felt more confidence that Manning could really turn it on when wants to. The thing that troubled me most about that loss to Philly is how helpless Eli appeared to be. Better play calling would have made a big difference. But would Phil Simms have recognized sooner that the Eagles were tracking the Giant’s offensive play calling?

Would the Giants have been better off drafting someone else and keeping Kerri Collins or Kurt Warner all those years ago?

All that is hindsight. I want Eli Manning back. I can’t deny that sometimes I have doubts. But, if he does nothing else in his career, he has become a legend among Giants players. I hope he plays his whole career with the Giants.

Go Giants!

I think Eli’s best years are still ahead of him.

And I don’t expect him to carry this team on his shoulder all alone.

That’s what they had in Denver with Elway and Miami with Marino. Although both of those guys were HOF QBs Elway didn’t win a Superbowl till they provided him a decent running game, and Marino never won one because he was basically a one man show.

As I have thought about it more, I think part of the whole deal with Eli is we live in an instant gratification world, where everyone is judged by the very last thing they did. The very last thing Eli did this season was bad, and it colors our judgment.
The very last thing he did a year ago was win a Super Bowl, and that colored our judgment.
As was said in an earlier comment, the story of Eli is still being written. When all is said and done, I suspect it will be a very good story for Giants fans.

I avoided ranting after the Eagles loss because everyone else covered the issues pretty well.

But really, how did we not get Ahmad Bradshaw the ball a few times?

The guy took the opening kickoff seventy yards and set the Giants up for a score.. and we almost never see him again.

I love Brandon Jacobs and Ward. Those guys are key players on our offense. But really…. we lose Plaxico… who else do we have on offense that really scares an opponent? Who makes an oppponent think “if that guy breaks a tackle we are in trouble?” Ahmad Bradshaw.

Yes, we should have run the ball more. We all know that…. and Bradshaw should have gotten a few of those carries. He might have broken one for 30 or 40 yards, maybe a touchdown, and knocked some of the confidence out of the Eagles defense.

And yes… I do have a point to make about Eli Manning.

I think the Eagles figured out that when things are going badly and Eli decides its time to make a play to shake things up, he is going to go deep. I think the Eagles went into that game knowing they were going to run blitz early and then drop deep on pass coverage.
When Eli went short it was always the tight end over the middle. I don’t remember seeing our receivers break off a short route.

Hopefully the coaching and play calling are better next year.

is a good QB, but KG is setting him up for failure. throwing long passes to WRs who cant win the 1 on one battle and come up with the ball the way plax could. What would his passer rating have been had half of those drops in the two eagles losses been completions?

next season, with no real “go up and get it” deep threat, we need more quick dumps. Have ward catching it out of the back field, more to Boss, some short crossing routes so that if we want to let moss or any of our other guys go deeps, they are not doubled. Plax could get it in a double team, the guys we have now cant.

Need a glass belly button, so he can see what the rest of us are doing out here.

on BBV

I believe the QB rating criteria is a very poor measure of a Quarterback to begin with. First off, it is purely passing stats. I does not take into account dropped passes, QB pressures, style of offense, weather conditions, strength of schedule or any other measurable that contributes or detracts from the players value to his team.

I’ll admit that Eli’s consistency can be questioned, but not without considering the rest of incidentals from each game. Give credit to the opposing teams defenses, which the Giants played 4 of the top 5 defenses in the league this season. I don’t see too many other QB’s in the league being called out when our defense knocks them out of their comfort zone.

We definitely know that Eli will never put up Peyton’s numbers, but that is to be expected with the style of offense the Giants play, albeit his rating should be higher considering this. The number of dropped passes this year was maddening and I’ll give up the fact that maybe 20% of those were due to ball placement by Eli. The other thing we don’t know, except when it’s obvious, is how many times receivers broke off their routes or ran the wrong ones. You can’t expect to complete passes on timing routes when that happens. It was obvious that without Burress there was a distinct drop in Eli’s game. Burress ability to adjust to a ball in the air and out jump defenders is difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

All in all, the kid runs a complex offense to precision and has great recognition skills, a strong arm with a need to adjust his cold weather mechanics, throws a very catchable ball at other times of the year and improves every year while just approaching his prime. Give him a receiving corps like the Cardinals or even one top notch wide-out like Fitzgerald and I think this conversation takes on a different direction and tone. Lets not forget that he has one of the best W/L records of any current QB in the league since he started.

He ain’t perfect, maybe far from it, but he’s ours.

 We lost, get over it, they will be back next year. From the SB last year and MANY times this year, everyone loved the job Eli was doing. The offense slipping the second 1/2 of this year was not on Eli…you can thank PLAX & KB……………..

the barometer of success for the NYG QB position is Simms, right?

Phil was drafted in 1979 and didn’t win his first SB until 1986. So let’s give the kid a chance. He’s got the physical tools, he’s a winner, and he has the backing of the locker room.

And besides, who the F* else is out there that would be even remotely close to being able to play in the pressure-cooker NY media market? Eli is the right guy for this team right now. To say that he needs to go for salary cap reasons is preposterous.

Eli is perhaps the most successful QB in Giants history after just 4 years as the starter. Does anyone think this team will miss the playoffs the next 2-3 years? Does anyone think this team won’t win another Superbowl?(even if they don’t, who cares?)

41-23 since 2005. Regardless of his faults the kid wins ballgames. When Eli has a losing season have at it until then enjoy it.

The game is fading into nothing more than a bitter memory.

It will be a long time before I forget first and five at the Eagles 21 yard line with 1:50 to go in the first half and Gilbride called for three straight passes.

I seem to recall yelling at my TV set in the third quarter too “run the damn ball!!!”. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that they started running the ball… and only after they were behind by two scores.

Gilbride does react but it takes him at least a quarter longer than it takes everyone else on the the planet.

The Eagles started the game run blitzing on first down. They knew the Giants would at least start the game running on early downs. Everybody wanted to know just how healthhy Brandon Jacobs was. So they stuffed a couple of runs and the Giants started throwing passes. The Eagles were waiting for that adjustment and were dropping guys back into coverage— but they had backed off of 8 guys in the box. I could see it in the second quarter. But it didn’t dawn on Gilbride until the fourth quarter.

One other thing… I am not blaming anyone, this is just how it was. But our pass rush was shot by the end of the regular season. Injuries and exhaustion had set in. Midway through that game the Eagles realized we weren’t getting to McNabb. We should have backed off on the blitz and dropped more guys into coverage. I know you are asking Steve Spagnoulo to suddenly change everything about his defense, but still, if you don’t have the guys to pull it off, change your scheme. I will live with that one. I am more frustrated by Gilbride’s lack of recognition.

Go Giants!