One thing we will never know is what if Eli had been 4 years younger and drafted in 2000 like Brady.... Who knows what the story would be if each QB was similar age,I do know the Giants were good enough in 2000 to get to the Super Bowl.
I am not at all sure Eli would have done better than Tom in the league we had at that time. I think that is likely the point. Eli is not the equal of Tom or Payton and will not likely end up their equal in league MVP's and things of that sort.
However Eli is along with his peers the first quarterback's to have come up completely in the rules changed NFL we have today.
We have always said pro football is a big play game. It used to be a league where we expected the QB to be the consummate game manager with for the most part the spectacular plays coming from the receivers, and more often than not from the defenders trying to stop offenses from succeeding. LT was the first defender of that era, the era of the big play defender.
Rules changes have given us the big play quarterback and Eli appears to be the first example of that. These are guys that are not as good at game management as Tom or Payton as examples. They are not as consistent on balance as the Tom's or Payton's. However Eli's big play potential and his innate ability to avoid mistakes in the biggest moments of the biggest games are magnified. His relevant deficiencies in areas of game management, strong points of Payton's game and Tom's game seem to be de-emphasized IN THE BIG GAME.
As I stated earlier, I do wonder if the rules changes will result in more success for the Eli prototypical quarterback in the big game. Smith is more like Eli than like Tom or Payton. Even Rogers is more like Eli than he is like Tom or Payton although Rogers looks to me like the definition of the dividing line. I think Brees sits on the same dividing line as Rogers.
I do not think this was a consequence foreseen by the rules makers but something worth watching for none the less. The kind of quarterback I am talking about definitely has more physical qualities than Tom or Payton has. That pass that Manningham caught at the end of the game is now and has been this year and last the defining quarterback pass play of this era and that is a very physical play. That is putting the ball in a spot 1' square, 40 yards down the field, and along the sideline. If that ball decelerates, it is intercepted at worse and at best is an incomplete. How many great quarterbacks of the past can make that throw? Can Tom make it? Can Payton make it? I know Rogers can cause I have seen him do it and I know Brees can.
Again I do not think this shift away from quarterback game management skills and consistent performance toward this ability to make big physical pass plays and avoid mistakes from the quarterback position was foreseen by the rules makers but I think it is here none the less.
