Eli for MVP? It’s not as crazy as it sounds

Mike Celizic

There’s still a shot for the Giants to make the playoffs, and if they beat Carolina and Minnesota to do it, let me be the first to start the campaign.

Eli Manning for MVP.

Go ahead and say that suggesting Manning the Younger could be a more deserving MVP candidate than his big brother, grizzled old Brett Favre, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Philip Rivers or Donovan McNabb is like taking the rice cakes over the aged prime rib. I’ll understand, because when the idea was first suggested to me, I thought the same thing.

But if you look at what the Giants have to work with, you have to admit there’s merit to the idea. In a year in which the Giants’ defense has played worse in each succeeding week, Eli Manning has without any fanfare been putting together the best season of his six-year career. Despite a month-long losing streak, the 8-6 Giants still have a shot at the postseason, and it’s all because of Eli Manning.

I’m not suggesting he’s the best quarterback in the league. Even I’m not that foolish. But we’re talking most valuable here, not best. And the reality is that the only way the Giants are getting into the playoffs is if Eli puts them on his shoulders and drags them there.

I’m not going to say that automatically makes him more valuable than Favre, Brees, Rivers, McNabb, Brady and Peyton have been to their teams. But it sure puts him in the discussion. The guy is that good.

Before you guffaw at that, picture him in a Dallas uniform for the past six years. If you don’t think the Cowboys would have won some playoff games, you’re not being honest.

Eli isn’t leading the league in anything, but he’s among the leaders in most categories. With 26 touchdown passes, he has surpassed his career high, and he has thrown just 11 interceptions. His yards per attempt are at a career high of 8.1, 1.3 yards better than he’s ever done before. His 61.2 completion percentage is also a career high, as is his 96.0 quarterback rating.

Quarterback ratings are probably the most abused and least telling stat ever concocted by the numbers wonks. If you go strictly by ratings, Aaron Rodgers is the fourth-best quarterback in the league and Matt Schaub is the seventh-best, ahead of Tony Romo, Brady, McNabb, Eli and Kurt Warner.

In Eli’s case, the rating is only an indication of the improvement he’s shown. His previous best number was last year’s 86.4, and to jump to 96.0 is a considerable increase. It reflects his improved completion percentage and his higher yardage per attempt.

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Before the season started, the Giants laid a $97.5-million contract extension on Eli. With his 2009 salary, it gave him a seven-year package worth $106.9 million. That’s more than his big brother is making. When he signed it, it was more than anybody was making.

In New York, eyebrows were raised higher than the Empire State Building at that contract. If he was going to get that kind of money, shouldn’t he at least be the best quarterback in the league?

But that’s the wrong question. Better is to ask how valuable he is to the Giants. The numbers the team threw at him show that the Giants believe he’s the one player they cannot live without. They say he’s the best quarterback the Giants have ever had.

With all due respect to Charlie Conerly, the Giants called it right. This kid has already won them a Super Bowl. He could yet get them into the playoffs this year.

He’ll never be viewed as being as good as Peyton. But there shouldn’t be any more shame to that than there is to being judged not quite as good an artist as Michelangelo or not as incisive a thinker as Stephen Hawking.

Even so, Eli won 47 of his first 80 games while Peyton won 42 of his first 80. Also, Eli is 4-3 lifetime in the playoffs while Peyton is 7-8. Each has one ring.