Eli Manning or Philip Rivers?

Recently, a close friend of mine found himself in a heated debate regarding New York’s Eli Manning and San Diego’s Philip Rivers. My friend’s peers argued that Rivers was the superior quarterback, and that they would take him over Manning “every single time.” I wasn’t there, so I was unable to offer my two cents, but it got me thinking about who the better quarterback is.

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If I were there, here’s what my argument would have looked like:

By now, we all know the story about the controversial, surprising 2004 draft-day trade. For some reason, Manning had absolutely zero desire to play in San Diego, and he made it well publicized, even prior to the draft. He refused to even don the Chargers draft-day hat. With Eli being visibly upset, the Giants made a call and sent their first-round draft pick, Philip Rivers, to the Chargers along with a litany of picks in exchange for the younger Manning.

Manning’s decision to forgo playing for the Chargers has drawn the ire from basically all of San Diego, but everything worked out in the end. Manning has the perfect personality for New York, and Rivers has had a nice career in San Diego, too. As a little side note, neither Rivers nor Manning has missed a game as a starting quarterback.

Both Rivers and Manning are lumped together with Ben Roethlisberger in a quarterback class — disregarding J.P. Losman — that is considered one of the best ever, or at least of recent memory.

Both have seen their fair share of playoff games and divisional championships, but who is the better quarterback? Well, if you believe regular-season stats tell the whole story, then Rivers is the superior quarterback, and it’s not even really debatable.

December 20, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers (17) warms up before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi

Not only is Rivers an unprecedented 3-0 against Manning’s Giants, he has much better stats. According to NFL.com, here’s how Rivers and Manning match up in terms of stats throughout the course of a 16-game season.

Rivers: 64.7 completion percentage, 36,665 yards, 252 touchdowns, 122 interceptions, 95.7 quarterback rating and a 5x Pro Bowler.

Manning: 59.0 completion percentage, 39,755 yards, 259 touchdowns, 185 interceptions, 82.9 quarterback rating and a 3x Pro Bowler.

Yes, Manning has the (slight) edge in touchdowns and passing yards, but he’s also typically had much better weapons than Rivers. Manning also has about a year-and-a-half more of experiences than Phil.

A cast consisting of players like Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer, Jeremy Shockey, Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham, Victor Cruz, Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham Jr. have been catching passes from Manning.

Rivers, on the other hand, has not had the same type of talent. “Old Man” Antonio Gates has been in San Diego for Rivers’ entire career, but the only other real threat Rivers has ever had was Vincent Jackson. Malcom Floyd is a great player, but he’s never amassed more than 860 yards in a season. Rivers, of course, did have the services of LaDainian Tomlinson for four years.

Based on that, it’s easy to say that in terms of ball security and completion percentage, Rivers has done more with less. However, the offensive system Rivers has played in also helps him with ball security. The Chargers don’t really take too many shots down the field, and that might have something to do with a lack of true playmakers on the outside. In fact, according to NFL.com, since 2006, Rivers has only had more pass attempts of 31 or more yards than Manning three times. One of those years was 2008, when the Giants were strictly a run-first offense.

Throughout Eli’s career, he has always had at least one playmaking wide receiver to chuck deep balls to, whether it was Burress or Beckham. Because of this, Manning — and offensive coordinators Kevin Gilbride and Ben McAdoo — likely feel more comfortable with Eli giving his guys a chance to make a play on the ball. Let’s also not forget that a decent amount of Manning’s interceptions have come by way of crazy deflected passes, receivers not catching the ball and bad chemistry with inexperienced receivers.

That’s not to say Manning’s turnovers are circumstantial, though. Rivers axiomatically makes far better decisions with the football. Sometimes Manning will appear to panic, and it’s led to some horrifyingly bad interceptions. Whenever Eli turns the ball over, though, he just shrugs it off and goes out and tries to throw some touchdowns (and sometimes more interceptions).

However, there’s one thing that Eli has that has eluded Rivers thus far.

Dec 28, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback

Eli Manning

(10) reacts after a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium. The Eagles defeated the Giants 34-26. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

That one thing is a Lomardi Trophy, and Manning has two of them. When it comes down to it, Super Bowls are the all-important thing when comparing two quarterbacks with relatively similar stats. You can’t say Trent Dilfer is a better quarterback than Dan Marino, but Super Bowl wins go a long way when comparing similar quarterbacks like Manning and Rivers. If nobody cared about Super Bowls, then whoever has the best stats at the end of the season should be named the best quarterback for that season. Alas, that is not the case.

That’s not to say Rivers hasn’t had good opportunities, though. It’s entirely possible that if LT were healthy in the 2007 playoffs the Chargers would’ve upset the Patriots in the AFC Championship. Oh, and if Rivers didn’t play that game on a torn ACL.

The fact of the matter, though, is that Rivers has never really carried his team and elevated them to new heights. Say what you will about Eli. Yes, sometimes he looks, well, silly, and sometimes he turns the ball over too much. But it’s hard to argue the fact that he nearly single-handedly carried Big Blue during their 2011 Super Bowl run. During that four-game span during the playoffs, there was no better quarterback in the entire NFL then Eli Manning.

Eli played out of his mind for the majority of the season, and I think he might have had one or two fourth-quarter comebacks, or something like that (kidding). When it comes to the postseason, Eli reigns supreme when compared with Rivers. Here’s what the stats look like, according to Pro Football Reference:

Eli: 61.5 completion percentage, 2,516 yards, 17 touchdowns, eight interceptions (three in his first playoff game), 89.3 quarterback rating and a postseason record of 8-3.

Phil: 60.3 completion percentage, 2,165 yards, 11 touchdowns, nine interceptions, 85.9 quarterback rating and a career postseason record of 4-5.

If we’re basing the argument simply on the regular season, then sure, I’d take Rivers over Manning because Rivers makes better decisions and is more fiery of a leader. But if we’re basing the argument on postseason success — which is ultimately what matters the most — and ability to elevate a team, then sign me up for Eli.

Who knows, though. With both Eli’s and Philip’s respective contracts expiring at the end of 2015, maybe they’ll swap teams and we’ll finally see Rivers on the Giants and Eli in San Diego.

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