I wake up this morning, log onto my computer to Yahoo! Sports like I do every morning, and what do I see? An article with details of Eli Manning’s new 6 yr/$97 million contract extension from the Giants that makes him the highest-paid NFL player. What??? Hey, listen, I’m not saying Eli Manning isn’t a top 10 quarterback in the NFL. Heck, you may even be able to convince me that he is in the top 5. However, you will not be able to convince me that he is a dominant, can’t live without QB that is worthy of being the highest-paid player in the league. Folks, I know he won a super bowl and that is one more than Dan “The Ringless Wonder” Marino ever won and the same number that Brett “I’m an Attention Whore” Favre has won. That’s nice, but I also know he’s a QB that has a career QB rating of just 76.1 and has had just one season with a QB rating higher than 77(last season’s 86.4 rating). I also know he’s a QB that has a career completion percentage of only 55.9% and has had just one season when he’s thrown for a higher percentage than a mediocre 57.7%(last season’s 60.3%). I’m not a fantasy geek by any means and I know the game is more than just stats, but is any defensive coordinator really shaking in their boots when they look up at the schedule and see Eli Manning coming to town? Even last season when he put up the best stats across the board of his career, it was still good enough for just 21 TD’s, 10 INT’s, a 60.3% completion percentage, and 3238 yards. Compare that to Matt Cassell, who posted a QB rating of 89.4, a 63.4% compeltion percentage, 21 TD’s, 11 INT’s, and 3693 yards. I know finding a QB capable of staying healthy(Eli’s started 71 games in a row) and winning playoff games is hard to do and you should want to keep a player of that quality, but is it really necessary to make him the highest-paid player in the league? The Giants say yes, but I say no.
