Since Eli Manning retired, there has been some serious revisionist history surrounding his time with the New York Giants. The debate about his Hall of Fame candidacy has gone on for years now, but his hopes of ending up in Canton don't look bright after being passed over for the second straight year.
I might be a biased Giants fan, but a signal-caller with two Super Bowl rings and two Super Bowl MVPs, deserves to make the Hall of Fame, yet Luke Kuechly is getting in before him. The argument against his Hall of Fame campaign is that he was never elite, but Pro Football Focus debunked that narrative in a major way.
The QBs with the most Big Time Throws in a single season in the PFF-era 🚀 pic.twitter.com/jGhnwavlk3
— PFF (@PFF) February 15, 2026
Over the weekend, PFF's Twitter account tweeted a list of the QBs with the most Big Time Throws in a single season in the PFF era. You may ask, who was at the top of that list? You guessed it. Eli Manning himself had 70 big-time throws in 2011, the same season in which he won his second Super Bowl.
Eli Manning is continuing to prove that his Hall of Fame campaign isn't over
PFF's website defines a big-time throw as "a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown farther down the field and/or into a tighter window". And the PFF era only dates back to 2006, but that's still 20 seasons of NFL data where a Giants' legend is ahead of every other quarterback.
The other five QBs that round out the top of that list make for some elite company: 2011 Drew Brees, 2025 Matthew Stafford, 2020 Tom Brady, 2010 Aaron Rodgers, and 2012 Joe Flacco. Brees just made the Hall of Fame, Stafford just won the NFL MVP, and Brady is the greatest QB of all time.
Then we have Rodgers and Flacco. Like Eli did, they both won Super Bowl MVP, which coincidentally came in the seasons directly before and after the Giants' Super Bowl run. Rodgers and Brady are future Hall of Famers and Stafford likely is, but Flacco may be just as big of a toss-up as Manning is.
We all remember the "Is Joe Flacco elite?" conversations from the early-to-mid 2010s, and now Eli has become the victim of those same conversations. Flacco just made his first Pro Bowl (which he didn't even earn) in 2025 and has fewer passing yards and touchdowns than his fellow HOF toss-up.
There is no world where Flacco gets in, and Eli doesn't, but this stat should really put things into perspective. The Giants have been a dumpster fire since he retired, and seeing him be in the company of some of the greatest quarterbacks to ever do it should shed new light on his snub.
He should (and hopefully will) make the Hall of Fame, it's all just a matter of when.