Finally!

It is incredibly gratifying to me to finally – FINALLY! – see someone perform some sacred cow-tipping and tell it like it is about Eli Manning. Sure, the source is a below-average backup defensive back and sure his one season in New York last year was a complete disaster. But that doesn’t change the verifiable accuracy of what he’s saying.

“You never know what you’re going to get with that guy. You never know if he’s going to come in and make bad decisions; you don’t know if he’s just going to have one of them Peyton Manning games where he lights you up.”

CC Brown has a point. After all, through five games, Manning leads all players (not just QB’s) in turnovers, with an NFL-worst 12 (8 INT/4 FUM). For his career (94 games), Manning has 122 turnovers (96 INT/26 FUM). This is Manning’s seventh season and his sixth as a starter. It is painfully obvious at this point that Manning is not good at protecting the football. How is this even a disputable point?

Manning is a mediocre NFL QB. He’s the very definition of “average” and the personification of mediocrity. His last name affords him the kind of protection from criticism that is otherwise heaped upon turnover-prone QB’s with accuracy and decision-making issues. Although I don’t expect too many more people to stand up and tell the truth, it is somewhat encouraging that at least one person in the NFL can tell us what far too many people refuse to accept. Eli Manning just isn’t that good.