It’s been a little more than a week since the world learned that New York Giants great Eli Manning was calling it a career after 16 seasons spent entirely with the Giants.
For years, even before his career was coming to a close, the debate over whether or not Manning belongs in the Hall of Fame was hotly contested.
Former teammate and Hall of Famer himself, Kurt Warner, added his name to that debate this week and he believes Manning belongs in Canton.
Warner, of course, was the Giants starting quarterback at the beginning of the 2004 season before Manning came in with seven games remaining to officially begin the Eli era.
Warner was pretty clear in his opinion on Manning’s Hall of Fame Status:
“It is such a weird process of going into the Hall of Fame and what all goes into making someone a Hall of Fame player,” Warner told SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano in Miami. “But, when you look at quarterbacks, you look at stats — that’s the era that we live in. And when you look at stats, without question Eli Manning has the stats to be in the Hall of Fame.”
Manning’s resume is most well-know for two postseason runs which both resulted in a Lombardi trophy. However, his stats also put him in elite class in many of the major quarterback stat categories.
“I think if you go back to when I met Eli, I might say, ‘Yeah, I was surprised at how it played out,’ but the one thing I can remember from my time being there was how consistent he was. How even he was in the way he dealt with being the No. 1 overall pick and being thrown in at a time when we weren’t a great football team and he had some struggles early,” Warner said.
As Warner pointed out, Manning was the model of consistency and being the NFL’s iron man for much of his career is a big part of how Manning will be remembered. Manning handled his career with nothing but class from beginning to end.
Warner was also asked about the two young quarterbacks in New York — Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold:
“I don’t believe we know the answer to that question yet, is that both of those guys have shown some great promise in the early period of their career,” Warner said when asked who is better. “But bottom line is who are they at the end of their career? What do they become? All great quarterbacks have an evolution process and continue to get better year in and year out throughout their career.”
The Giants, of course, passed on Sam Darnold in favor of Saquon Barkley at second overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. They ended up with Daniel Jones in last year’s draft, and both Darnold and Jones both look like talented thus far.
Time will tell which New York quarterback ends up being the better of the two, but you can bet the debate will go on for years.
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