New York Giants: Philip Rivers remains an all-time great draft story
By Zac Wassink
The New York Giants using Philip Rivers to acquire Eli Manning remains the club’s greatest NFL Draft decision of the 2000s.
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and Los Angeles Chargers starter Philip Rivers will forever be linked thanks to the famous trade on the opening night of the 2004 NFL Draft. Manning made it clear he didn’t want to play for the franchise that called San Diego home at that time, the Chargers drafted Manning knowing a deal with the Giants was in place, the two sides swapped signal-callers, and Big Blue sent additional picks to the Chargers used to acquire Nate Kaeding, Shawne Merriman and Jerome Collins.
That transaction forever changed the Giants. Manning developed into one of the top fourth-quarter quarterbacks of his generation, he guided the club to a pair of Super Bowl championships, he earned two Super Bowl MVP trophies and will, one day, be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It’s a deal Dan Salomone of Giants.com wrote about earlier this week for a piece about the team’s best draft picks since Lawrence Taylor:
"Ernie Accorsi, the general manager who pulled the trigger on the deal, was on our radio show a few years ago when he was inducted into the Ring of Honor and told the story of how it all went down. Pay attention to the last line, which is the most important and makes the answer to this “Cover 3” an easy one. He said, “If I wouldn’t have been in the fourth spot, we wouldn’t have gotten him. We would have had to go too far to get him. I would have been satisfied with [Ben] Roethlisberger. I felt very good about Roethlisberger and all our scouts did, Tom [Coughlin] did, the Maras did, we felt real solid about Roethlisberger. They’re about as close as you can get as far as what they’ve done, but it was just something about Eli that he was the one I wanted, but I didn’t really expect to get him at that point because it looked like they weren’t going to trade him. They were asking for Osi Umenyiora, which we were not going to give them. So that’s how the whole thing evolved because I just felt that with the quarterback, you have to reach for greatness if you have a chance.”"
The tale told by Accorsi is probably nothing new to fans of the Giants. It’s known those running the organization at the time would’ve been fine settling for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had the trade with the Chargers been removed from the table for whatever reasons. Like Manning, Roethlisberger owns two Super Bowl rings, and it’s possible Big Ben would’ve been as successful, if not more so, had he been given a Giants jersey that fateful draft night.
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Perhaps most interesting about the story is that Rivers was only part of the equation because of the trade. By all accounts, the Giants had no intentions of ever playing Rivers. The 2004 NFL Draft was always about either Manning or Roethlisberger. Those two became legendary figures for their respective teams, while Rivers may be remembered as the best quarterback of his era to never win a championship.
In retrospect, the Chargers’ willingness to accept Rivers and other assets for Manning is the best thing to happen for the Giants during the 2000s. While Roethlisberger appeared more ready for the NFL than Manning right out of the gates, off-the-field controversies could have sunk his career before he reached his physical prime. Those moments shouldn’t be forgotten.
The motorcycle accident that occurred in June 2006. Multiple allegations of sexual assault, and a subsequent suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. How would Roethlisberger have handled these incidents while having to deal with a relentless New York media? Would living in or near the Big Apple have presented too many temptations for a version of Roethlisberger that, by his own admission, needed to mature to become great?
For a piece published by Bleacher Report back in 2015, Dan Pompei wrote about the development of Roethlisberger as a quarterback, a teammate and a person. “I’d be the first to admit I wasn’t a good teammate early in my career,” Roethlisberger said. Would the personality he possessed in his early 20s have meshed inside of that Giants’ locker room? Nobody knows.
It takes a special type of person to serve as the CEO and public face of a football team with “New York” in its title. Ask Mark Sanchez and anybody else tasked with saving the New York Jets in recent memory about that. Roethlisberger may have thrived with the Giants, or the city and region could have eaten him alive. We can only guess.
Next: 2018 NFL Mock Draft: Full 7-Round projection
The discussion ultimately returns to Rivers because of what he meant both to the Giants and the Chargers. In Rivers, the Chargers’ front office saw a franchise quarterback good enough that New York didn’t need to include a proven commodity such as Umenyiora in the trade that sent Manning to the Giants.
"“I just felt that with the quarterback, you have to reach for greatness if you have a chance.”"
It’s a good thing Accorsi did, and it’s a good thing the Chargers were so high on Rivers.