| Authored by Andrew Perna - 5th August, 2009 - 10:35 pm
 The New York Giants may not have a proven wide receiver, but on Wednesday they locked up starting quarterback Eli Manning with a six-year, $97.5 million contract extension.
The deal will keep Manning in New York through the 2015 season and will reportedly pay him $35 million in guaranteed money. Just five years after he was the first overall pick in the NFL Draft, he will be the league’s third highest-paid player in terms of annual salary.
Eli’s average salary will be $15,155,000 under the terms of the extension, more than one million higher than what big brother Peyton earns in Indianapolis.
Only Julius Peppers ($16,683,000 under Carolina’s franchise tender) and Carson Palmer ($16,166,000 over seven years with Cincinnati) have higher annual salaries.
The extension itself was a foregone conclusion, with both sides intent on extending their relationship well into the next decade. Manning’s current contract was set to expire at the conclusion of the 2009 season.
Eli’s numbers have never, and will never, mirror his brother’s, but he has enjoyed similar team success. The Giants missed the playoffs in his rookie season, during which he appeared in just nine games, but he has directed them to the postseason in four straight years.
For now, he will always be remembered for willing New York to a shocking victory over previously unbeaten New England in Super Bowl XLII.
He may not be a three-time NFL MVP like Peyton, but they both have one Super Bowl ring and a Super Bowl MVP trophy to their credit.
Manning’s best season came in 2008, when he threw for 3,238 yards, 21 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions. His quarterback rating (86.4) and completion percentage (60.3) were both career-highs.
He has always been knocked for making poor decisions and his QB rating in his first four seasons (55.4, 75.9, 77.0, and 73.9) shed some light on that concern. Prior to last season, Manning had never finished a year with a touchdown-to-interception ratio higher than 1.4.
The Giants led the NFL in rushing yards per game in 2008, and they have finished in the top seven in each of the last four seasons. On the opposite end of the spectrum, they have finished in the bottom third of the league in passing in three of the last four seasons.
Put simply, New York is rushing team. Eli Manning gets a lot of press because of his last name, but a majority of the offensive talk surrounding the team is focused on their stable of running backs. With Plaxico Burress in court and Amani Toomer in Kansas City, the Giants aren’t going to shift towards the pass anytime soon.
I would be very interested to see him quarterback an offense that tries to win games through the air. Thanks to this extension, it’s possible we could eventually see the Giants shift their offensive focus.
Eli supporters will contend that his play increases in the playoffs, but aside from a run of strong performances leading up to the Super Bowl victory in 2007, that’s not the case.
He threw three interceptions in a 23-0 loss to the Panthers in the Wild Card round of the 2005 playoffs, with a QB rating of 35.0.
A year later he looked better in a Wild Card tilt against the rival Eagles, going 16-for-27 with two touchdowns and one interception. His QB rating jumped up to 85.6, but the Giants still lost 23-20.
Manning didn’t have a single stinker in the four-game run leading to Super Bowl XLII. He threw six touchdowns and just one interception, completed more than sixty percent of his passes, and posted QB ratings of more than 115 against the Buccaneers and Cowboys.
I hear a lot about him because I live a stone’s throw from the New York border in Connecticut, but my colleague Jeff Risdon pointed out in his 2009 Season Preview for the Giants that “perhaps no other Super Bowl-winning quarterback has ever faced as much chronic lack of enthusiasm from the fans and (most) media...”
He’s not in the same class as Brad Johnson (Tampa Bay, SB XXXVII) and Trent Dilfer (Baltimore, XXXV), but he doesn’t belong in the same sentence as Peyton, Tom Brady or John Elway in terms of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks either.
The ultimate question is -- how much is Eli Manning worth?
He ranks 26th among active quarterbacks in career passer rating, behind guys like Jon Kitna, Byron Leftwich and (gulp) Damon Huard. He sits 21st in terms of touchdowns thrown and 18th in interceptions.
In addition to forever being linked to Peyton, Eli will always see himself compared to Philip Rivers. The Chargers famously drafted Eli with the first overall pick in 2004, against his wishes, and promptly traded him to the Giants for three picks. One of those, the fourth overall, was used on Rivers.
Rivers overshadowed Manning’s best individual season in 2008 by leading the NFL in quarterback rating (105.5). Rivers was stuck behind Drew Brees in his first two seasons, while Manning became the starter midway through their rookie year, but Eli has just twenty touchdowns and 4,000 yards on his counterpart.
Rivers has a career passer rating of 92.9, much higher than Manning’s (76.1) and has thrown more than two touchdowns for every interception in San Diego.
Eli isn’t just chasing Peyton and Philip. According to RealGM’s Field Impact Counter (FIC), he was just the 16th-best quarterback in the NFL last season – and that was his most productive campaign.
The Reina Value, a statistic that links a player up with his “deserved” salary based on his FIC total, indicates that Eli deserved to make $5.875 million last season. He’ll average close to triple that over the next six seasons thanks to the reported $97.5 million extension.
The Giants are unquestionably giving Manning more than he is worth, but one must not forget that more than $60 million of the deal isn’t guaranteed.
Should Manning’s play drop off significantly (doubtful) in the next new years, the Giants could cut him loose without so much as a second glance. That is the beauty of the NFL; teams have powers that their NBA counterparts can only dream about.
While he is erratic and far from the best pure passer in the NFL, Manning has shown that he can lead the Giants, especially with Tiki Barber focused on broadcasting.
You also have to credit Eli for handling the pressure cooker that is New York with relative ease. He deals with the press, which is often brutal and firmly against him, without so much as a dirty look. At the very least, handling New York is worth an extra million or so annually, and the wear-and-tear is much greater.
Grade For Eli Manning: A+
He couldn’t have really done any better, aside from getting more money guaranteed. As I mentioned, he’ll be the third highest-paid player in terms of annual salary in 2009, and will probably jump to second in 2010. He’s making more than his iconic brother and received his lucrative contract in uncertain economic times.
Grade For The Giants: B+
The Giants had no choice but to give Eli a very lucrative extension. They don’t have another long-term solution at quarterback, and while unspectacular, he is a proven winner. You can’t miss a beat in the NFC East, and failing to sign Manning to an extension prior to the season would have left doubt over the team all year long.
New York general manager Jerry Reese is thrilled to have this behind him, and knew the number would be approaching $100 million shortly after the club lifted the Vince Lombardi trophy eighteen months ago.
Andrew Perna is Deputy Editor of RealGM.com and co-host of RealGM's Radio Show. Please feel free to contact him with comments or questions via e-mail: Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com
|
