Tiki Barber Comments That Eli Manning is Better Than Peyton Are Only Partially True

Michael Moraitis--Featured Columnist

Tiki Barber made a bold claim on Wednesday that New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning was better on the field than his brother Peyton, who currently plays for the Denver Broncos. While that was once thought to be a crazy notion, Barber's comments aren't that far from the truth anymore.

Barber spoke on the Morning Show on CBS Sports Radio Network, which is a show that he co-hosts with Brandon Tierney and Dana Jacobsen. Here are the former New York Giants' words, per John Breech of CBSSports.com:

"The expectation was that he was never going to be Peyton. I remember having these conversations with people who watched Eli in college, saying, 'He's good, but he's never going to be Peyton, he's not Peyton.' Guess what? I think he's better than Peyton," Barber said. "Because of clutch. What matters in sports? It's winning and losing. You get to the stage and what do you do? Eli's gotten there and he's won."

So, where is Tiki right and where is he wrong?

There is no question in the minds of NFL analysts and fans alike that Peyton will go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks ever thanks to his unmatched regular season dominance.

Not only is Peyton one of the smartest signal-callers ever to put on a football jersey with his constant play-changing at the line of scrimmage and near mastery of reading defenses, but he also routinely racks up insane statistics that will undoubtedly rank him near the top of every major category in NFL history.

Heck, some would even argue Peyton is as good as a coach at this point in his career and is at the very least an extension of whatever coach is on the sideline for his respective squad.

 

Adding to his already impressive resume, Peyton has four NFL MVP Awards under his belt.

Eli's numbers won't exactly stack up to those of Peyton's when discussing regular season success or MVP trophies, but Eli does have a huge advantage over Peyton in playoff success and that's exactly where Eli comes into the realm of being as good as his brother.

The Giants have won two Super Bowls with Eli behind center and both came against the New England Patriots in a surprising and clutch fashion. By comparison, Peyton has only captured one Super Bowl as a member of the Indianapolis Colts.

 

Digging a bit deeper, Peyton's playoff record of 9-11 is a far cry from his brother's, which is an astounding 8-3. Add two Super Bowl MVPs for Eli to Peyton's one and you have another area where Eli is superior to his brother.

Where I take issue with Barber's comments is his absolute opinion that Eli is better than Peyton simply because of clutch. Indeed it's accurate that clutch performances in the playoffs are a huge factor in sports and Eli certainly has done more than Peyton in that regard, but not even Tiki can ignore just how much more talent Peyton has over Eli.

It just depends on what you rank as more important when comparing two quarterbacks. In my humble opinion, you have to take more than just titles and playoff success into consideration when both players have at least one Super Bowl and some playoff success in their past.

If you need to win a regular season game, you would go with Peyton. If you need a huge fourth-quarter drive to win a playoff game or the Super Bowl, Eli is your man. Clearly Peyton is consistently better each and every season before the playoffs come, but Eli takes the cake beyond that.

To be fair, I would say the Manning brothers are pretty even with all things considered and after each of their respective accomplishments, but that is certainly a victory for Eli because as Tiki pointed out, nobody ever thought Eli would be close to Peyton.

However, I think it's safe to say the Ole Miss product has forever changed that notion.