By Jordan Long
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has decided to retire from the NFL. He spent 16 seasons, all with the New York Giants. The biggest question now that he is retired, is his next stop the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 5 years?
Manning was originally drafted by the then San Diego Chargers who held the 1st pick in the 2004 draft. He told the Chargers he would never play a game for them. The Chargers traded him to New York for Philip Rivers.
In Manning’s rookie year, he appeared in 9 games, tossing for 1,043 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions, a taste of what he could do in the NFL. His top year for New York was in 2011 passing for 4,933 yards, 29 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
This past year, Manning showed he couldn’t perform at a high level anymore. He started in 4 games and his record was 1-4. He didn’t read the defenses like he used to, throwing for 1,042 yards, 6 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. The Giants even replaced him in the starting lineup with rookie Daniel Jones. Jones’ record wasn’t much better going 3-9 but had 3,027 passing yards and 24 touchdowns. He didn’t try to throw the football into coverage and was picked off 12 times. The future is bright with Jones under center for the Giants.
For Manning, he leaves the game with 57,023 passing yards, ranking him 7th in NFL history. Manning used the whole field to find his receiver open for touchdowns, chucking 366 in his career. The touchdown passes ranks 7th all-time. Just looking at those stats, he is a Hall of Famer. Not many quarterbacks played at a high level for so many years like Manning did.
His record in the NFL is average. Manning won 117 regular season games as a starter and lost 117. The 117 wins ranks 10th all-time. Adding all his playoff victories combined with regular season wins, it equals 125 which is 10th all-time.
In the postseason, a quarterback wants to play well. Manning was no different. He started in 12 playoff games for New York with a record of 8-4. In those games, he totaled 2,815 passing yards, 18 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions. New York managed to advance to the Super Bowl twice with him, knocking out the New England Patriots in Super Bowls 42 and 46. Manning was the MVP both times.
Manning did everything a quarterback wants to do in the NFL. He has two Super Bowl rings and was voted to the Pro Bowl 4 times. It was time for him to hang up his cleats. The next stop for him is the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His stats show he was one of the top quarterbacks to ever play the NFL game. Manning won’t be eligible until 2025 to be considered for the Hall . Manning may not be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he will eventually be enshrined in Canton, Ohio.
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