Eli Manning VS Tony Romo Debate Resumes

Just like last year, we have reason to let the debate continue between who the better quarterback is – Eli Manning or Tony Romo.

Check out the breakdown after the jump

ESPN’s NFC East Blog has this post up today ranking the best QB’s in the Beast:

Clipped from: espn.go.com (share this clip)

Here’s the long and short of it:

"1. Vick 2. Romo 3. Eli 4. McNabb 5. Kolb 6. Beck/Grossman"

Then the joke:

"…most of the complaints were about the order of the next two guys on the list. Basically, it appears as if Giants fans believe Manning should be ahead of Tony Romo because Manning won a Super Bowl three years ago and Romo (a) likes to vacation in Cabo and (b) once fumbled a field goal snap at the end of a playoff game."

And the tongue-in-cheek mea culpa to Giants fans:

"…Romo/Manning is pretty close….In the end, I went with Romo, because ranking them tied for second would have felt like a cop-out and because I feel like Romo is the better all-around player/thrower/decision-maker at this point in time. But I don’t think he’s better by much, and if I were picking third in this draft I wouldn’t be devastated to be “stuck” with Eli Manning. I’d just give Romo the slight edge right now if I were picking second."

There’s a bit more, but honestly its more of the same. In my mind and in the mind of Tony Romo himself, Eli Manning has proven to be the better QB in what matters most.  WINS,  PLAYOFF VICTORIES, and CHAMPIONSHIPS.  Admittedly, the ESPN article does point out the stat of ultimate importance — winning.

"Manning has him in winning percentage (.612 to .568)"

And of course there’s no victory sweeter than that litte 2007 Super Bowl run where the Giants led by Eli Manning beat arguably the best NFL team of all time.  But that’s a tangent we need not get into — because here’s the completed playoff picture from my article last year, and the numbers have not changed mind you:

Eli Manning: (4*-3)
Tony Romo:  (1-3)

*includes Superbowl

I don’t care of Roger Staubach thinks Tony Romo is a Super Bowl caliber QB, he has not led his team to that dance. Eli has.  I don’t care how well Romo golfs, how much he passes the eyeball test, how crafty/mobile he is, how hot his girlfriends are, how great a guy he is (and he DOES seem like a good guy for real) — Eli has much better consistency that most people give him credit for.

Related to that notion of consistency, Big Blue View posted an interesting breakdown of who is and almost is elite last year as well.   The framework was posed as follows “which quarterbacks over the past 5 season have thrown for over 3,000 YDs and 20 TDs”.   Here were the names on the list:  Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Dan Marino, Brett Favre, and Eli Manning.

Now after a year later, you can add to that list Ben Roethlisberger and Phil Rivers.  That’s good company to be in the same conversation when you’re talking about the elite QBs in the NFL right now. Of course Aaron Rodgers is now going to be in that almost category, and since he’s won a ring he will be in that talk of elite QBs for some time to come…. and he generally already was in that talk because he’s such a dynamic play maker.

But I digress, back to Romo vs Manning.    Who is currently better?  Currently better — how do you measure that?  Well, Manning led his team to a 10-6 season throwing for his second 4000+ yard season and a career high 31 TDs (25 INTs)… while Tony Romo went out early with an injury (suffered against the Giants of course) and threw for 1,605 and 11 TDs (7 INTs). Sounds like Eli Manning had the more productive 2010 to me…

And projections for next year are out — here is what the experts say at NFL.com:

Eli Manning

vs

Tony Romo

So apparently, Tony Romo is projected to have the better statistical 2011 season. So Eli had the better 2010, Romo will have the better 2011. That makes it official then about who is currently better:

IT’S A WASH!