Monday, September 5, 2011

Is Philip Rivers An Elite Quarterback?

When a lot of people answer this question they will either say yes, his numbers speak, or no he didn't lead his team to the playoffs. You can make arguments for both, like numbers don't mean anything, or that his team didn't do their part but he did his. I believe that the real reason that he is questioned to be elite or not is that the Chargers©  are not a great team. The Giants'©  went 10-6 meanwhile Eli Manning threw 25 interceptions. This is because the defense lead the league in takeaways as well as giveaways. While Rivers had 13 interceptions and the Chargers went 9-7. Eli Manning had 30 turnovers, 31 touchdowns and Rivers had 30 touchdowns and 17 turnovers. Eli's completion percentage was 62.9% and Rivers was 66.0%. So how come the Giants went 10-6 while the Chargers went 9-7, and Rivers is considered elite and Eli isn't. The numbers speak for themselves. Completion percentage and turnovers actually do make a quarterback elite. People say numbers don't matter only wins. Why isn't Mark Sanchez, he is 19-12 in the past two years while Aaron Rodgers is 21-10? The reason is Rodgers completion percentage last year was 65.7 and he had 12 turnovers. Mark Sanchez's completion percentage last year was 54.8 and he had 14 turnovers. The reason the Packers won two more games and the Super Bowl© was one, they had a good defense, like the Jets©, but unlike the Jets© they had elite quarterback play. The opposite happened to the Chargers, they had elite quarterback play, but bad defense/special teams. Rivers was also missing his top targets Gates, Floyd, Jackson, Crayton, and Naanee missed a combined 35 games. Rivers put up elite numbers without his top targets. So by his numbers Rivers is elite, but the San Diego Chargers© are not yet an elite team.