King Arthur Movie Tristan

You know who they are. Elite QB's in the NFL are hard to come by nowadays, with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning heading the class. You can also throw Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Michael Vick into that category. One name that never comes up, Peyton's brother Eli, who won Super Bowl XLII with the Giants. Eli feels that he is an elite QB, in the same category with his brother and his rival, but to many, fellow draft member Philip Rivers is looked to as the better QB. The casual fan immediately says no to the thought of Eli being an elite QB. In Eli's defense the reporter did ask him if he thought he was an elite QB. What was he supposed to say? Even Jeff George would of said yes. I didn't even rank Eli in my top ten QB's of 2011 about a month ago and my stance stands, he is not an elite QB. Now if I was doing a top 15 list, I would definitely put him at number 11 or 12. While stats aren't everything, lets look at Brady's (the QB he compared himself to) first seven years compared to Eli's. 

Tom Brady (2000-2006): 21,564 yards, 147 touchdowns, 78 interceptions

Eli Manning (2004-2010): 22,646 yards, 156 touchdowns, 113 interceptions

Like I said, stats aren't everything. Brady won three Super Bowls during those seasons and in his career has not had a season with more then 14 interceptions. Eli on the other hand, had 25 interceptions in 2010 and 20 in 2007. There is not a huge difference in stats between these two, but the touchdown-to-interception ratio is just killing Eli. If he could improve that stat in 2011 and beat out the "Dream Team" in the NFC East, then maybe I will consider him one of the best in the game at its most important position.