With the announcement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 that featured Green Bay WR Sterling Sharpe, Chargers’ TE Antonio Gates, Chiefs and Vikings DE Jared Allen and former Eagles cornerback Eric Allen, there was one surprising omission that happened to be a big-name quarterback.
Of course, I’m talking about former New York Giants’ QB Eli Manning.
Manning did not make the cut for the Class of 2025 to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Despite winning two Super Bowls over arguably the greatest dynasty in NFL history in the New England Patriots, Manning’s resume outside of the two Super Bowls wasn’t strong enough to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
That’s going to lead to many debates throughout the days ahead across the NFL media landscape, and that started Friday morning on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike Conduct radio show, where former NFL defensive end Chris Canty, a former teammate of Manning’s, called the former Ole Miss standout the best QB in a loaded 2004 NFL Draft class that just so happens to feature former Steelers’ signal caller Ben Roethlisberger, and former Chargers’ great Philip Rivers.
The show got onto the discussion of Manning when co-host Evan Cohen questioned if Rivers would get into the Hall of Fame over Manning, which set Canty off.
“They can’t do that. What’s the argument? He was the best quarterback in that class,” Canty said of Rivers potentially getting into the Hall of Fame over Manning. “He was the best quarterback in that class.”
Cohen then pushed back on Canty calling Manning the best QB in that draft class, stating he’d over Roethlisberger over Manning, to which Canty vehemently denied.
“No. Eli Manning is the best quarterback in the class,” Canty added.
It’s understandable that Canty wanted to give his former teammate flowers, especially the day after he was passed over for the Hall of Fame. But there is no world in which Manning is the better quarterback than Roethlisberger in that 2004 NFL Draft Class, even with Manning going No. 1 overall and Roethlisberger going No. 11.
Of course, the two are tied in Super Bowls with two, as Roethlisberger won Super Bowl XL and Super Bowl XLIII with the Steelers, while Manning won Super Bowls XLII and XLIV, adding two Super Bowl MVPs to his hardware, too. Roethlisberger doesn’t have those, though he should have received one for Super Bowl XLIII.
Roethlisberger also had a longer career, playing 18 seasons, while Manning played 16 seasons, serving as the full-time starter in 14 of them. Roethlisberger never had a year in which he was a true backup, though his rookie year he was supposed to be the No. 3 behind Tommy Maddox and Charlie Batch, but injuries forced him onto the field, he won 13 straight games and the rest is history.
During his career, Roethlisberger also produced more passing yards (64,088 to 57,023), more touchdowns (418 to 366) and less interceptions (211 to 244). Roethlisberger also completed 64.4% of his passes in his career, compared to just 60.3% for Manning.
If you want to look further, too, across a 17-game season on average (yes, I know they played 16 games in that era), Roethlisberger’s stats year after year would trump Manning’s (4,375 yards, 29 TDs, 14 INTs for Roethlisberger; 4,108 yards, 26 TDs and 18 INTs for Manning).
Looking even further, in Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor, Roethlisberger has a 100.28 HOFm, putting him in the same company as the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Matt Ryan and Terry Bradshaw, with the average HOFm for quarterbacks coming in at 108. Even Rivers is right there with Roethlisberger.
Manning, on the other hand, is down at 86.01. Though he’s right with Hall of Famer Kurt Warner with that number, his career accolades don’t really stack up to Roethlisberger’s. Neither made any All-Pro teams, but Roethlisberger has six Pro Bowls to Manning’s four. He also has the longer career.
So, while the 2004 NFL Draft class was a great one, and will produce three Hall of Famers at the QB position when it’s all said and done, Manning was not the best QB in the class, like the case Canty tried to make. The numbers bear that out in favor of Roethlisberger.
