How Does Philip Rivers Compare to Ben and Eli?

QB Philip Rivers (Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty)

Of course, being a Steelers fan, I love Ben Roethlisberger. I am also an NC State alum, so I love Philip Rivers as well. An argument can be made that he is one of the top 5-10 college quarterbacks ever, particularly considering that unlike other QBs in that discussion, he didn’t have a team filled with top 10 recruiting classes. Considering that and the fact that his college offense was a typical pro-style offense, not the run-and-shoot or spread, his numbers in college were staggering. Just check here, and scroll down to the bottom. With that said, I wanted to take a look at how Philip Rivers compares with his more decorated Draft Classmates. I realize that Rivers is the only first round QB from the 2004 NFL draft without a super bowl ring. But, that doesn’t mean he’s vastly inferior to Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning.

So, as I have already done in this post and this followup post on Ben vs. Eli, I will review Philip Rivers’s accomplishments against theirs. I will also review the level of defense that he faced so far in his career. He’s been hammered for playing in the weak AFC West, but has the Chargers’ defensive schedule overall been significantly weaker than the Steelers’ and Giants’ schedules? We’ll find out. (Note: All data taken from www.pro-football-reference.com)

First, let’s take a look at a comparison the three players’ accomplishments. The table below shows career statistics for each player.

Player	Eli Manning	Philip Rivers	Ben Roethlisberger
Career Wins	42	33	51
Pro Bowls	1	1	1
Playoff Record	4-3	3-3	8-2
Super Bowls	1	0	2
Career TD Passes	98	78	101
Career TD %	4.3	5.5	5.3
Career INTs	74	36	69
Career INT %	3.2	2.5	3.6
Career Pass Yds	14623	10697	14974
Career Rush Yds	215	160	616
Career Y/A	6.4	7.5	7.9
Career Sacks	120	77	192
Career Sack %	5	5.1	9.2
Career Cmp %	55.9	62.3	62.4
Career Pass Rtg	76.1	92.9	89.4
Career Y/G	200.3	205.7	208
Awards	2007 Super Bowl MVP		2004 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year

Let’s compare each of these categories and see how Rivers lines up with the other two. Obviously, he is behind in career wins, but while Eli and Ben have started since their rookie years, Philip had wait behind a suddenly Pro Bowl caliber Drew Brees his first two season. If we went by number of wins per year as a starter, Philip would be ahead of the other two, averaging 11 wins per started, 10.2 wins/year for Ben, and 9.3 wins per year for Eli (assigning 4.5 as the number years Eli has started).

Philip has the same number of Pro Bowls as each of the others. He has one fewer playoff win than Eli, but 5 fewer than Ben. Of course, he has yet to win a SB. He trails both in TD passes, but, again has more per year started than the others, with 26/year (20.2/year for Ben and 21.8/year for Eli). He has the highest TD % of the three, nearly identical to Ben and 1.2 % higher than Eli. He has almost half as many INTs as Ben and less than half than Eli. Again, based on a per year basis, he comes out ahead, with 12/year (13.8/year for Ben, 16.4/year for Eli). And, he has a better INT %. He is behind in passing yards, but ahead in passing yards/year started, with 3565 yards/year started (2994.8/year for Ben, 3249.6/year for Eli).

Philip is clearly not a runner, based on his rushing numbers. His yards per attempt is almost as high as Ben’s, his career sacks is least among the group. If sacks are broken out per year started, he is still the least sacked, with 25.7 times/year (38.4 for Ben, 26.7 for Eli). His sack % is just above Eli’s, though. Ben and Philip have a much higher completion percentage than Eli, and they are nearly identical. Philip has the highest career passer rating, and he is slightly behind Ben in yards/game.

Finally, both of the others have a significant award, 2007 Super Bowl MVP for Eli, and 2004 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year for Ben, while Rivers has no similar award. However, taking all of these statistics together, Philip Rivers appears to compare quite favorably to the other two. The next question is this: Is there a significant difference in the level of defenses that Philip has faced? Let’s take a look.

Philip Rivers
Year	Rush Offense Rank	Average Yearly Opponent Defensive Ranks
2006	2	16.82
2007	7	13.95
2008	20	18.17
Career Avg	9.67	16.31
Year	Division Opponents’ Pass Defense Rank	Division Opponents’ Rush Defense Rank
2006	16.35	18.24
2007	12.53	17.47
2008	15.78	20.17
Career Avg	14.89	18.63

Ben Roethlisberger
Year	Rush Offense Rank	Average Yearly Opponent Defensive Ranks
2004	2	10.81
2005	5	18.13
2006	10	14.53
2007	3	19.81
2008	23	12.53
Career Avg	8.6	15.16
Year	All Opponents’ Pass Defense Rank	All Opponents’ Pass Defense Rank
2004	11.5	15.75
2005	19.63	15.82
2006	14.93	14.53
2007	18.44	19.31
2008	12.53	13.68
Career Avg	15.4	15.82

Eli Manning
Year	Rush Offense Rank	Average Yearly Opponent Defensive Ranks
2004	11	9.63
2005	6	16.94
2006	7	17.24
2007	4	15.05
2008	1	11.06
Career Avg	5.8	13.98
Year	All Opponents’ Pass Defense Rank	All Opponents’ Pass Defense Rank
2004	12.63	11.00
2005	18.53	14.35
2006	15.53	19.18
2007	16.05	14.35
2008	11.29	11.94
Career Avg	14.81	14.16

Just as I did for Ben and Eli in the previous posts, I only included games that Rivers was in, so I only looked at the numbers from the last 3 years. As usual, these numbers show a mixed bag. For example, throughout his career, the average ranks of opposing defenses have been lower for Philip than Ben and Eli. On the other hand, his teams’ average offensive rush ranking have been the lowest of the three, due mainly to this past year. Also, as somewhat expected, Philip’s best statistical years correspond with the same years when the opposing defensive rankings were lower. So, this does tend to lend some credence to the argument that he’s face inferior opposition and can’t be considered in the same class as Ben and Eli. However, the differences in rankings haven’t been enormous, and Rivers basically carried the team this past year, with the Chargers’ rushing game and defense really struggling.

Considering the evidence, I think that Philip Rivers appears poised to enter the conversation as one of the elite QBs in the NFL. In every statistical category, he compares favorably with Ben and Eli (except SB wins). Although he has faced, on average, lower ranked defenses than the other two so far in his career, the difference in ranking hasn’t been drastic. And, after three years as a starter, he has become the leader of his team. We’ll see over the next 7-10 years if my prediction does come true. Whether he wins a championship will depend as much on his defense and rushing attack as his own performance, just as those factors impacted Ben and Eli’s championships.

Tags: Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers