Sorry, Giants fans: Eli Manning has no room for outrage after Hall of Fame snub

Look, it's been a tough few months for the New York Giants. Well, technically it's been a tough few years, but just the past few months alone have featured an embarrassing turn on "Hard Knocks" that exposed the dysfunction at every level of the organization and a dismal 3-14 record on the field — all while Saquon Barkley, the face of the franchise that Joe Schoen smugly let walk last offseason, helped carry the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl.

This is a fan base that could very much use a win at the moment, is what we're saying. And so it should come as no surprise that, when Giants fans discovered that former quarterback Eli Manning fell short of induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, they weren't too happy about it. Manning is a New York legend, a stalwart under center who also represents a link to the last time this franchise was worth taking seriously. He's also one of just a handful of players in the history of the NFL to win multiple Super Bowls and multiple Super Bowl MVPs. With a resume like that, how could he not immediately be bound for Canton?

While we hate to kick a fan base while they're down, and we certainly empathize with Giants fans looking for a direction in which to channel their rage these days, Manning's Hall of Fame candidacy might not be the best place to do it. He may well make it in one day, but to pretend as though he's an obvious shoo-in is to ignore most of his actual career.

Eli Manning is far from an open-and-shut case for the Pro Football Hall of Fame

To be clear, this isn't to argue that he doesn't deserve consideration at all. Manning's near-unparalleled longevity, as well as his role in guiding New York to two of the most memorable wins in league history, deserve their spot in the sun. He would hardly be the least deserving player in the Hall, and if you're strictly using the "can you tell the story of football without this player in it" line of logic, you'd have a hard time keeping him out.

But while Giants fans love to point to those two Super Bowl MVPs — more or less a guarantee of enshrinement, with Jim Plunkett as the lone exception — the fact remains that Manning played many, many other games over the course of his 16-year career. And that body of work points more to a quarterback who was consistently above-average, with two incredible throws at the best possible moment, rather than one who was among the best at his position.

According to Pro Football Reference, Manning's career passer rating of 84.1 places in 66th all-time, just behind Mark Brunell and, yes, none other than Daniel Jones. Granted, that's an imperfect catch-all, and you won't hear me arguing that Jones is actually a better player than Manning was. But it does point to the fact that, for the most part, Manning was a good but flawed player, one whose physical limitations and knack for putting the ball in harm's way left him at least one notch below the best QBs of his generation.

And his lack of personal accolades bear this out. Manning earned just four Pro Bowl nods over his 16 years in the league, and he never once made an All-Pro team. He completed just 60 percent of his passes at seven yards per attempt, numbers that are solid (particularly for the era in which he played) but hardly superlative. Again: If you want to argue that Manning's Super Bowl runs and ability to stay on the field no matter what are enough to earn him induction, I won't push back too hard. But the idea that he's a slam dunk, that not electing him at the earliest possible moment is some kind of crime against the sport, simply doesn't pass the smell test.