Eli Manning Too Harshly Criticized?

[erpowers]

I am not that big of an Eli Manning fan, but I do wonder if he is criticized too harshly by some sports media. There are a number of quarterbacks in the NFL who, when they have a bad game or throw bad passes the sports media will just claim his receivers dropped his passes. This year Eli Mannin's receivers lead the league in dropped passes; however, I am not sure very many people in the sports media pointed out that many of his passes were dropped. It seems that it is possble that Manning would have had a better season if so many of his passes were not dropped. Should Eli Manning be given some leeway since so many of his passes were dropped?

[BulletproofLandshark]

1. Manning and his receiving corps both deserve a lot of blame.

Eli is naturally going to take more of the heat just because he's the QB. But he's been getting no help from his receivers either. In the 2nd Skins game, I think Brandon Jacobs alone must have dropped 4 passes. But IMO Eli gets more heat for 2 reasons:

1. He plays in NY
2. The way he engineered his draft-day trade from San Diego (How's that working out?) only increased expectations for him.

[BOSSHOG]

2. A QB playing in the New York Market?

Harsh = the Norm. And he has some baggage. His fancy schmanzy Daddy and Brother, his razzle dazzle on draft day, his often less then spectacular Manning like performance often. It should be expected. BTW I am a Manning Family fan but no doubt the New York media will find some fault with the connection.

[joeybee12]

3. First draft pick, NY paid so much they had to dump some people,

one of the worst QB ratings right now...I say, bring it on--on him, that is!

[rinsd]

4. He's a former #1 pick playing QB in the country's most ferocious media market.

No matter what he does, he will be skewered.

That said, his play this year has been uneven at best.

[fishnfla]

5. He and his whole team seemed snakebit with mistakes

dropped passes, penalties, etc.

Eli himself seemed enigmatic, brilliant one drive, horrid the next 4.

I will say one thing though: he shrugs off the criticism "it is what it is" Pretty good way to handle it, IMO

[redqueen]

19. Enigmatic... hmm...

I used the word "schizophrenic" recently to describe it. When he's good he's fun to watch that's for sure.

[cboy4]

6. On behalf of San Diego Charger fans, I hope he

struggles through his career and never wins a ring.

He's a punk.

[MaineDem]

7. Oh my, we agree!

*high five*

[cboy4]

8. right on

[rinsd]

9. He didn't want to work for the douchebag Spanos family.

Who seem to fuck over this city as if its were an annual tradition.

Hell, they still may move the team to LA if they don't get a new stadium.

Charger fans (which epitomize the SoCal bandwagon fan, 6 blacked out games just 2 years ago) fell hook, line & sinker for bullshit the Spanos and their little toadie AJ Smith peddled.

[cboy4]

10. It had nothing to do with working for Spanos and everything to

do with wanting to play in a large N.Y. market where he could earn significantly more money in endorsements, etc.

At least Charger fans aren't bitter.

Official Eli Manning Sucks Thread............>http://forums.chargers.com/showthread.php?t=18273

[trumad]

11. So I'm guessing Elway is a punk to?

[cboy4]

12. Well, I just read that Elway pulled the same thing with the

Colts, so yea, he acted like a punk also.

I don't remember the draft back then, but to remain consistent, I have to criticize Elway.

I just don't understand why these players couldn't simply attempt to price themselves out of having to sign with these teams, as opposed to coming out and essentially threatening them not to draft him.

[trumad]

13. You mean like Steve Young

who opted to join the USFL instead of being drafted number one by Tampa Bay?

Guess he's a punk to?

[cboy4]

14. I thought Young played for Tampa.

Is that wrong?

[cboy4]

15. Trumad??

??

[cboy4]

16. You're right Trumad. I just read he went to play for the USFL

in L.A. instead of playing for Tampa.

But you can't really blame Young for signing that record 40-million dollar contract.

Yea, Tampa fans have a right to think of him as a punk, even though he ended up playing for them the following year when the USFL collapsed.

It would have been one thing to demand going to another NFL team, but that's not what happened when he was drafted.

So I don't think you can compare it to the Manning or/and Elway situation(s).

[trumad]

17. Well--actually you can

because it's called choice. Manning and Eli didn't want to play for a certain team so they didn't. Young didn't want to play in the NFL, so he didn't. If you're using money as Young's excuse, then couldn't you say the same for Manning when he chose the Big Apple over San Diego and a cheap owner?

Same with Elway--- the Colts owner was notoriously cheap and a scumbag.

[cboy4]

18. I don't know. I don't think all of the situations were equal.

I admit I'm biased when it comes to Young, but he did go and play for the horrible team that drafted him.

And I'm sure he handled things a lot better than Eli did. Eli behaved like a prick.

[hughee99]

22. Isn't there a rookie cap structure

so that a #1 pick will make roughly as much no matter which team has the 1st pick? In fact, because of the structure, SD would have had more money to spend on rookies than the Giants did picking at #4. Was Manning's choice about his starting salary (which shouldn't have been that different) or because he didn't want to play for them? He said "I was thinking about what I'm going to do for my occupation, where I'm going to work and hopefully have a long career. I didn't think San Diego was the place." As I understand it, he informed the Chargers before the draft that if they were to choose him, he would not "represent them". I took that to mean that he wouldn't sign with them, though I don't know for sure exactly what that meant. The Elway situation was similar, but in his day, they didn't have the rookie pay structure, so his starting salary could have been dramatically different depending on the team. There is a difference between this and what Young did. Manning and Elway wanted to play in the NFL, they just wanted to pick the team (or at least have more control over which team they played for). Young got competing offers from different leagues, and though we all know what the USFL was, he had a legitimate choice and wasn't just trying to game the system. Young's situation, IMHO, is more comparable to an athlete who gets drafted in both baseball and football (two different leagues competing for his services), or at the very least, an athlete who decides to stay in college another year because they don't like the team that would end up drafting them.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

23. Did somebody say Elway?

Note: The Seahawks would play this when Johnny was announced before the game. Hello!

[hughee99]

20. He's probably too harshly criticized because

he's too over-hyped. On the whole, he's an AVERAGE QB with an average receiving corps. The expectations on the offense are higher then they should be, and so the criticism is harsher than deserved.

[SeanQuinn]

21. As a Giants fan, no he's not.

He deserves it most of the time. Week 17 was an extraordinary performance from him.