Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback by Ralph Vacchiano

Author:Ralph Vacchiano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

THERE ARE THIRTY quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Fourteen of those were selected in the first round. And in the first forty-two Super Bowls, there were twenty-seven different winning quarterbacks. Fifteen of those were first-round selections. That means only twelve Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks have come from rounds two and beyond. In other words, a lot of hard work by a lot of scouts turned up a lot of low-round quarterbacks that were less-than-championship-caliber.

But it only takes one gem—one Unitas or Brady or Warner—to convince teams they don’t need to go for the high-ranked, high-priced superstar.

“There are so many good players that have come from the bottom,” said former St. Louis Rams head coach Mike Martz. “And I think teams now understand that, particularly with Brady, and Kurt Warner, and some of those other guys that have done so well, guys really understand how hard it is to evaluate that position. Just because you take him in the first round doesn’t mean he’s going to make it at that level. You have a real chance of missing there, too. There are very few Peyton Mannings, Ben Roethlisbergers.”

Warner was the first one to really start the debate, at least the modern version of it. He was an obscure quarterback from Northern Iowa who had played in the Arena League and NFL Europe and failed in several tryouts for the NFL. He was only supposed to be the Rams’ backup quarterback in 1999, but was thrust into the lineup in the preseason when the starter, Trent Green (himself an eighth-round pick), injured his knee.

The rest was historic—one of the greatest Cinderella stories of all-time. Warner helped turn the Rams into the Greatest Show on Turf, throwing for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns while completing 65.1 percent of his passes. He even led the Rams all the way to the Super Bowl, where he threw for two touchdowns and a record 414 yards in a win over the Tennessee Titans. He became the sixth player (and fifth quarterback) to be named the league MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season.

While that was happening, general managers and scouts were falling all over each other, digging through their old reports on the newest overnight sensation. Many of them had seen Warner in college or in the Arena League. And if they didn’t, they certainly saw him Europe. They all needed to know how they misjudged him so badly. And for some, it made them reevaluate how they judged whether a quarterback could make it in the league.

“Do you need a quarterback that everybody rates in the top five? No you don’t,” said Atlanta Falcons general manager Rich McKay, who won a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay a few years later with Brad Johnson, a ninth-round pick, at quarterback. “Do you need a quarterback that fits what you do on offense? Yes. He’s got to fit what you do and be very proficient at the way he fits it. But I’ve never believed you need a ‘franchise quarterback’ to win a Super Bowl.

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