Simms On Manning - Control vs Accuracy

I watched an interesting segment on ESPN the other night. Phil Simms was a guest and, of course, the subject was his view on quarterbacks. He was asked to give his list of the top ten quarterbacks in the league (he gave five and the only thing you need to know is that Donovan McNabb was #3).

They also asked Simms to identify the "up and coming" quarterbacks in the league - quarterbacks for whom he expected big things in the future. Eli Manning was not on either list.

Naturally, the discussion then turned to his views on Eli Manning and I thought his insights were very interesting. According to Simms, Manning's problem is not accuracy but control. Manning periodically loses control of the football resulting in a wild throw - similar to a pitcher who might be having a very good game and then suddenly throws a wild pitch 10 feet over the catcher's head.

Simms noted that, while every quarterback occasionally throws a "wild pitch", Manning does it too often to succeed in the NFL (I believe he said a rate of about four per game). He emphasized that "control" is a basic and essential skill for any NFL quarterback and that Eli Manning would never be a top ten or an "up and coming" QB unless and until his control problems were resolved.

The good news is that Simms believes control issues can be overcome. The bad news is that he hasn't seen any indication of that happening to date.