Eli Manning seemed to come out of nowhere, so to speak. Before last season’s Super Bowl he would not have ranked among the NFL’s top quarterbacks. This season he is listed just below Tom Brady and his brother Peyton for the league’s elite.
Eli Manning is fulfilling the great expectations of his draft position and his background-the first family of quarterbacks and first overall pick in the NFL draft.
Peyton Manning won in The 2006 Super Bowl, in his 9th year and Eli was a champion in his 4th season. The two brothers are similar in some ways. They have the same build and the same parents. Their arm signals and demeanor resemble each other, but they are definitely not clones. As a matter of fact they could probably switch cities and be more comfortable. Peyton Manning is gregarious and flippant, so he would fit New York. Eli Manning is humble-to-a-fault and would fit well in Indianapolis. Eli is like his mother, Olivia, and Peyton like his father, Archie. Archie was a quarterback with the New Orleans Saints for 14 years, but it was a close-to-hopeless team. Proud of the family’s consecutive Super Bowl titles and consecutive MVPs, Peyton is proud that they have been on the cover of the 2007 and 2008 NFL media guides.
Peyton is proud of the family's consecutive Super Bowl titles and consecutive MVPs, which has put the Manning brothers on the cover of the 2007 (Peyton) and 2008 (Eli) NFL media guides. He does not like the continuous comparison however.
The major difference between the two has been their path to stardom. Peyton Manning became part of the league’s elite in his 2nd season playing indoors with receivers like Marvin Harrison and with an offense designed by Tom Moore. His struggle has been in the playoffs, particularly outdoors against a new England team that found a way to make him look bad.
Peyton made the league's elite in his second season, playing indoors with receivers like Marvin Harrison in an offense designed by Tom Moore, the only offensive coordinator he's ever had. His only burden: he struggled in the playoffs, especially outdoors against a New England team that always seemed to find a way to make him look bad.
Eli Manning has taken most of his career to develop his run-oriented offense. He went from an object of ridicule to stardom in the last 5 games of the season. Last season, his former teammate, Tiki Barber said on NBC that Eli’s attempts to lead the Giant’s offense were “comical.” Even though Eli has yet to put together a consistent season, there is little doubt that he is the man now.
