Remember, You Can't Spell 'Daniel Jones is the Giants Starter Again' Without E-L-I

So now that a healthy Eli Manning is being benched once again, now that his 2 TD, 3 INTs, 87.9 Passer Rating game against Miami is effectively the punctuation mark at the end of his Giants career, I ask again:

Is this a Hall of Fame quarterback?

Oddly enough, the first time he got benched for Jones, the internet exploded with declarations that not only was he a Hall of Famer, he’s a mortal lock first ballot Hall of Famer. With a big lock:

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The argument always goes like this, “First of all, Eli won two Super Bowls.” But there is no “Next of all.” After the two Super Bowls point is made, the discussion just sort trails off into mumbles, awkward pauses, throat clearing and R2D2 beeps and whistles. Because there is no “Next.” No other argument to be made other than the two good months he put together over a span of about nine seasons.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m salty as all hell about the fact those two months cost my team banners. I’ve never been shy about admitting that thought haunts my every step. He played great in those postseasons and deserved to win. But rarely, if ever, played great other than that. Not Hall of Fame-material great.

Are we going to declare him a “winner” based solely on those two rings? Because if so, we’re going to ignore a lot of inconvenient truths. His inability to win more than he lost, for one. This last win over the Dolphins brings his career record to 117-117. Actually raised it to .500. Unless I’m missing somebody, the only QBs in the Hall of Fame without winning records are Sonny Jurgensen at 69-73 and Joe Namath at 62-63. The difference between them and Manning is Jurgensen set single season NFL records for attempts and completions and passing yards on more than one occasion. And Namath became the first guy ever with 4,000 passing yards. Manning has led the NFL in a category three times in his career. And all three times it was interceptions (2007, ’10, ’13).

We’d also have to ignore the fact that in his 16 seasons as the Giants starter, he led them to the playoffs a total of six times. And aside from the two championship years, was one-and-done in the other four. Maybe Canton-worthy QBs only make it the postseason 37.5% of the time. But my Hall of Fame isn’t filled with guys who get bounced in the first round 67% of the time, unless they’ve set all sort of records along the way, like Jurgensen and Namath.

And while we’re talking about numbers, that stat line from last week that I mentioned? That Passer Rating was above his career total. You want to put a guy who has lower career PR than he would if he threw more picks than touchdowns every game. In fact, Eli’s career mark is 84.1. Which would be great if he played in the same era as HoFers Jim Kelly (84.4) and Roger Staubach (83.4), when you could perform Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” on QBs and their receivers on every down without drawing a flag. But among his contemporaries, it ties Eli with Joe Flacco and puts him below guys like Sam Bradford, Jay Cutler and Case Keenum. And if there’s been a groundswell of support for their candidacies, I’ve missed it somehow.

But after all that, let me just simplify the argument: Has any quarterback in the Hall ever been benched while he’s healthy? Don’t @ me with Joe Montana sitting behind Steve Young. He missed all of 1991 and all but one half of a game in 1992 with a busted elbow. And by the time he healed up, Young had established himself as the league MVP. Neither Montana nor anyone else in Canton would ever have been sent down the depth chart behind some rookie out of Duke while they were still drawing breath.

So if they Eliphiles and Manningstans are right and he does get in, he’ll be the first to be elected to Canton without a winning record, any type of passing record and make it solely on the basis of his two rings. And if they set the bar that low, they better build an addition onto the place to make room for a lot of other guys who’ll deserve the same. Starting with Jim Plunkett. So congrats on a nice career, Eli. But you’re gonna need a bigger Hall.