Mannings Among Men

Never let it be said that BBV doesn't aim to please. Earlier in the week 'mahmoodzakay' had asked if we could do a comparison between Eli and Peyton Manning as to where they were after 4 years in the NFL. After much discussion, we've decided to go one better and include stats for their Dad, Archie, as well. We've prepared a statistical breakdown for each one, as well as some season by season notes.

We'll start with Archie Manning. Archie was drafted Number 2 overall by the New Orleans Saints in 1971 out of Ole Miss.

Archie was the starting QB from day one, and led the Saints to a 4-8-2 record, which was an improvement from the 2-11-1 record the Saints posted in 1970.

1972 saw the Saints fall back to 2-11-1, done in by a defense giving up almost 26 points a game. Archie led the league in passing completions and attempts, undoubtedly because the Saints were always playing from behind and forced to throw the ball more. Archie's best game of the season in 1972 came against Philadelphia, he threw for 295 yards and 2 TD's in a 21-3 drubbing of the Eagles. Of special interest to Giants fans, Giants beat the Saints in 1972, 45-21, picking off Archie 4 times.

1973 saw the Saints rebound a bit to 5-9, but statistically speaking this was a bad year for Archie, only one multi-TD game, and only 2 games with more than 200 yards passing.

The Saints finished 5-9 again in 1974, Archie had another terrible year, throwing for only 1400 yards and 6 TD's. Archie was plagued throughout his first 4 years by a lack of offensive weapons, a bad offensive line (Archie was sacked more than any other QB in 1971 and 1972, and terrible defense (near last in the league in points allowed every year.

Now we turn to America's Pitchman, Peyton Manning. Peyton was drafted number one overall by the Indianapolis Colts in 1998 out of Tennesee.

Like his Dad, Peyton was the starting QB from day one. Like his Dad, his early seasons were plagued by bad defense. But unlike his Dad, Peyton had weapons on offense, like Marshall Faulk at RB, Jerome Pathon and Marvin Harrison at WR, and Kent Dilger at TE. As Peyton's first season went on, the Colts became more consistent on offense, but couldn't overcome a defense giving up on average 4 TD's a game, and finished 3-13.

1999 the Colts turned it around, going 13-3 and winning the AFC East, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to Tennessee. Peyton was only sacked 14 times in 1999, and went made his first Pro Bowl.

2000 saw the Colts go 10-6 and make the playoffs as a wild card, losing to Miami. Peyton made his 2nd Pro Bowl in 2000 while leading the league in passing yards, TD's, and completions. Peyton had his best day of his young career against Jacksonville, throwing for 440 yards and 4 TD's in a 43-14 rout of the Jags.

2001 was a down year for the Colts, they went 6-10, thanks to a defense that was giving up over 30 points a game. Head coach Jim Mora was fired and replaced by Tony Dungy. Peyton had another 400 yard game against Buffalo, throwing for 421 yards and 2 TD's in a 42-26 win over the Bills. 2001 didn't bring any notable milestones for Peyton, and other than his rookie year, this is the only year Peyton has missed the Pro Bowl.

Last but not least, Number 10 in your programs, Number 1 in your hearts, Eli Manning. Eli was drafted Number One overall by San Diego, and traded to the Giants for Philip Rivers plus draft picks.

Eli was named the starting QB by coach Tom Coughlin in Week 11 of 2004, but you may remember Eli played in Game One against Philadelphia, after Kurt Warner was shaken up. The lowlight of Eli's rookie year was a game against Baltimore when he completed only 4 passes, threw 2 interceptions, and actually finished the day with a 0.0 QB rating. He rebounded after this game, and in the last game of the season he threw 3 TD passes against Dallas.

2005 was Eli's first full season as a starter, and he started strong, throwing 9 TD's and only 2 picks the first 4 weeks of the season, but was plagued by inconsistency after the bye week, throwing 15 TD's and 15 picks the remaining 12 games. Eli had an awful day against the Vikings, throwing 4 picks. The Giants won the division, going 11-5, but were trounced at home by the Panthers, 23-0, a game in which Eli threw 3 INT's and was sacked 4 times.

Expectations were high going into 2006, and the Giants and Eli didn't disappoint, going 6-1 after a much hyped opening night game against Peyton and the Colts, a game in which Eli outplayed his brother despite losing. The Giants and Eli were doomed by a 2nd half collapse that saw them get into the playoffs as a wild card, only to lose to Philadelphia 23-20. Eli had an up and down year, a few bright spots doomed by stretches of inaccuracy and poor decision making. The second half collapse and slow development of Eli had many calling for Coughlin's head. After meeting with management after the season, Coughlin was given one more year to straighten the team and the QB out. Kevin Gilbride was named Offensive Coordinator, and Chris Palmer was brought in to work with Eli.

I think it's fair to say 2007 was a make or break year for Eli. The fans and media were turning on him, the head coach was on the hot seat, and maybe the best offensive player the Giants have ever had retired. Eli started well, throwing 4 TD's in the opening night loss to Dallas, but after that it was the same old thing; inconsistency, bad decisions, and bad body language. The Giants beat Buffalo to go to 10-5 and clinch a playoff spot, but many were wondering if Eli was ever going to be the QB the Giants thought he would.

That all started to change on December 29th when the 15-0 Patriots came to Giants Stadium. Eli outplayed Tom Brady that night, throwing 4 TD passes. Little did anyone know then that a little more than a month later, Eli would outplay the best QB in football again.

Eli played well in all 4 playoff games, and didn't throw a pick until the Super Bowl. His numbers in the SB were good enough to earn him the Super Bowl 42 MVP award and a trip to Disneyland.

In doing the research for this story, I came to a few conclusions:

• The Mannings are extremely durable. Archie missed 6 games in 4 seasons,which isn't bad if you consider he was sacked 137 times in those 4 seasons, an average of almost 3 times per game. Neither Peyton nor Eli have missed a game since becoming starters, an amazing feat in today's NFL.
• When you look in terms of statistics,all three Mannings battled inconsistency, interception totals are high for all three of them, although ever since the start of Peyton's 6th season, his INT totals have come way down. Maybe this is a sign of things to come for Eli.
• There is much debate on just how good Archie was. He never made the playoffs, and played on some of the worst teams in modern day NFL history, so there is some school of thought that his stats are somewhat "padded" because he played on losing teams that had to throw the ball a lot. My theory is that Peyton and Eli didn't get their genes by accident, and Archie was a pretty good QB playing on pretty lousy teams.
• While numbers wise you have to give the edge to Peyton, in the NFL, "the rings the thing" so you have to give the edge to Eli there for getting his team a Super Bowl victory in his 4th year. While Archie certainly didn't have many achievements on the field, there isn't another man alive who can say he raised two Super Bowl MVPs.

Special thanks to Pro Football Reference.com , and NFL.com for their help with the research, and also Mrs. jrs1940 who knows a little more about formatting than I do, and saved my butt on this.