Eli was never excellent. He was never going to be his brother. But he was always steady and likable for a long, long time. He'll always be my favorite QB from that rookie class. He declined in his mid 30s, as most players do, despite what we've seen from a handful of others in the last ten years. But his stretch from 2009-2015 was excellent, despite the fact that he didn't always have a great supporting cast. The Dolphins would be lucky to develop a QB as good as he was during his peak.
I wouldnt consider him a HOF player period. The HOF should be for the elite of the elite and Eli is a guy who was above average with some hot streaks. Just my opinion.
But why? Considering the last qb to be inducted into the hof was kurt Warner, and eli's stats have tremendously surpassed his, why does eli not deserve it? What makes a qb hof worthy or not?
You need to blend statistics, both year by year and total, with subjective judgement and a human eye. Determining who gets into the HOF is more art than science.
Warner is the opposite argument of Eli (no longevity, but clearly the best QB in the game for several years). Both deserve to get in.
Perhaps just recency bias, but Eli seems like he had more bad years than great years, with some average thrown in. He doesn't deserve to a HoF, but the two Super Bowl wins will get him in.
I think that we all (not just us here, but all of football) needs to get past the notion that every productive quarterback then deserves to be enshrined into the HOF. To me, players like Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers are basically the Boomer Esiason or Phil Simms or Drew Bledsoe of their era. Worthy of being given the highest honors by their individual teams and worthy of being remembered, but not HOFers.
Opining late but in my book Eli does deserve HoF consideration. Two time Super bowl champion, both against the Mighty Patriots and killing the Patriots effort to have an undefeated season....and had two Super Bowl championships before his big brother Peyton had one. In those 2 Super Bowls, Eli made some clutch throws to beat New England. If that doesn’t warrant HoF consideration then the HoF is nothing more than a popularity contest
It depends on how you view it. I see championships purely as a team accomplishment, and no player should be judged one way or the other in their regard. At most, its something of a tiebreaker if you're on the fence, I suppose.