This game a reminder how special 2004 was
Since they were among the top 11 selections in the 2004 draft, the trio of Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger has been compared to what is considered the greatest quarterback haul in NFL history — the 1983 draft that produced Hall of Famers John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino.
The 1983 class produced quarterbacks who won more than 60 percent of their games and led their teams to 10 Super Bowl appearances. The 2004 class produced quarterbacks who won four Super Bowls and have posted better numbers than their more famous predecessors. And they’re not finished.
The debate as to which draft crop has been more
successful is more appropriate now that Manning, Rivers and Roethlisberger have been around long enough to have played a similar amount of games as Elway, Kelly and Marino.
That discussion will be highlighted even more Sunday night at Heinz Field when Roethlisberger and Rivers will meet for only the sixth time in their 15-year careers when the Steelers (7-3-1) play host to the Los Angeles Chargers (8-3). Their success, along with the two Super Bowls won by Manning, have put the stillactive threesome on pace to eclipse what that record-setting trio from a different generation accomplished. If they haven’t already.
“I think you have to let this play out a little bit more,” said former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who was right in the middle of what happened in 2004 when he selected Roethlisberger with the 11th overall selection — a move that changed the direction of the franchise and helped him win his first and only Super Bowl. “That ‘83 class, it was pretty special. But this class of players, with Ben, Eli and Philip, with the consistency with which they’ve played, there’s something really special about it.”
If quarterbacks are judged on championships, then the 2004 class has the edge. Roethlisberger and Manning each have won two Super Bowls. Rivers has never appeared in a Super Bowl, though, based on the way he and the Chargers are playing, it would not be far-fetched to think he could get there this season.
Elway, Kelly and Marino combined to appear in 10 Super Bowls, though Elway was the only one to win any (two). Kelly (0 for 4) and Marino (0 for 1) were shut out.
Now take a look at total victories and statistics, keeping in mind the 2004 class has benefited from recent favorable rules changes.
Of the six quarterbacks, Roethlisberger has the best record (142-66-1), most yards per game (259.3) and most yards per attempt (7.9). While Elway (148) and Marino (147) have more victories, they also have appeared in more games. Roethlisberger, who has appeared in 23 fewer games than Elway and 31 fewer than Marino, will pass both of them early in the 2019 season, barring some unforeseen circumstance.
Manning has slightly more passing yards than Roethlisberger (54,775 to 54,729), but he has also thrown more interceptions (235 to 186). Curiously, they each have thrown 353 touchdowns.
Despite playing fewer games, Rivers has more touchdowns (368), a better completion percentage (.645) and fewer interceptions (172) than his draftmates.
Of the six quarterbacks, only Marino has more passing yards (61,361) and touchdowns (420). But both those numbers are easily within reach of Roethlisberger and Rivers, provided they maintain their level of excellence for two more seasons, perhaps only one. Manning, whose playing days appear numbered with the Giants, might not get the opportunity.
“It’s such an intriguing class,” said Cris Collinsworth, a former Cincinnati Bengals receiver who will be at Heinz Field as a booth analyst for NBC Sports. “The idea that all those guys were franchise quarterbacks, all of them played at a superb level, all of them are comparable statistically in many ways, makes it a really unique class. For all of them to be at the age they are now and still playing at a high level, it just doesn’t happen where the first three go off the board like that and have that kind of impact.”
A quick study
It was not supposed to unfold the way it did. Of the three quarterbacks selected with the first 11 picks, Roethlisberger was the one who was projected to take the most time to develop in the NFL.
But when Tommy Maddox was injured in a Week 2 game in Baltimore, Roethlisberger entered in the third quarter and looked nothing like a rookie quarterback who wasn’t ready for the NFL.
To be sure, his second pass was intercepted by Ravens linebacker Adalius Thomas. But his seventh attempt went for a 3-yard touchdown to Antwaan Randle El. The Steelers lost the game, 30-13, but it would be the last time their new quarterback would endure defeat in the regular season.
“He got thrown in that game and I said, that’s the wrong game to put a rookie quarterback in,” former running back Jerome Bettis recalled the other day. “They kind of feasted on him. It was tough on him. But the one thing I saw, his confidence was never rattled. Usually in a game like that, you’ll get beat up, sometimes a rookie will seize up. He never did.
“We came out the next week in practice and he had a really good week of practice. Everybody was concerned because we had a veteran team. They were like, OK, here we go again. We were worried how he would prepare and practice. He came out and practiced lights out. That’s when we knew we had something.”
The Steelers never lost again that season. Roethlisberger became the first quarterback in NFL history to finish a regular season with a 13-0 record. The Steelers finished 15-1 and went to the AFC championship, where they lost to the New England Patriots.
One year later, the Steelers went to the Super Bowl, thanks to a dazzling postseason performance by Roethlisberger. It was the first of two Super Bowls he would win, one of three in which he would appear.
Meantime, Manning was off to a rocky start with the Giants, winning just one of the final seven games he started and completing just 48.2 percent of his passes as a rookie. Rivers? He sat for two seasons behind veteran Drew Brees before making his first start in 2006.
“The consensus of almost everybody was, the other two would play sooner than Ben, but Ben had the most upside of the three,” Cowher said over the phone last week from his home in Bedford, N.Y. “It’s ironic how it turned out that Ben was the first one to play.”
Not that it didn’t take long for Manning and Rivers to have a major impact on their franchises.
After a rocky rookie season, Manning led the Giants to an 11-5 record and the NFC East Division title in his second season. From there, he won two Super Bowls with the Giants in a five-year span and was named MVP in both games, something Roethlisberger never accomplished. From 2004 to 2017, he started 210 consecutive games with the Giants, the second-longest streak among quarterbacks in NFL history.
Once Brees departed after the 2005 season, the Chargers fortunes turned immediately under Rivers. He led them to a 14-2 record and an AFC championship appearance in his first season as a starter. After that, he followed with seasons of 11-5, 88 and 13-3, leading the Chargers to the postseason all four years. He threw 105 touchdowns with 44 interceptions in that four-year span.
Rivers hasn’t missed a start since he replaced Brees 13 years ago, a consecutive streak that will reach 204 against the Steelers. But Rivers hasn’t taken the Chargers to the postseason since 2014. That appears destined to end this season.
“He’s an MVP-caliber player, and he’s playing at MVP level right now,” Roethlisberger said. “What he did last week was pretty spectacular — 25 [completions] in a row. It’s hard to follow all of the games on the West [Coast], but it’s easy because he’s a quarterback to kind of keep track of how he’s doing.”
Strange draft day Like Marino, Elway and Kelly, the three quarterbacks from the Class of 2004 have spent their entire careers with the same team. But on what was a curiously bizarre, very chaotic draft day on April 24, 2004, each of the quarterbacks very nearly ended up with another team. And, strangely, very nearly ended up merely changing uniform colors with each other.
The Chargers, coming off a 4-12 season with Brees (how curious is that?), had the first overall pick in the draft and selected Manning, a record-setting quarterback at Mississippi who won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best all-around player.
That was bad news for the Giants, who had the fourth overall selection. Their general manager, Ernie Accorsi, wanted Manning. But Manning already had let it be known he wouldn’t play for the Chargers if they drafted him.
The Giants tried to move into the No. 1 spot to draft Manning by offering a predraft trade with the Chargers to swap positions. But, the Chargers wanted Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora as part of the deal. Accorsi said no.
When Accorsi never heard back from the Chargers in the days leading up to the draft, and with Manning already off the board, he was prepared to select Roethlisberger with the fourth overall pick.
“Everybody thought my second choice was [Philip] Rivers, but that wasn’t the case — Roethlisberger was,” Accorsi said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette two years ago. “That was almost a jump ball with us — Roethlisberger and Eli. We scouted Roethlisberger very, very thoroughly. Both Eli and Ben’s pro days were flawless.”
But with seven of the allotted 15 minutes to make a selection remaining, Accorsi’s phone rang. Chargers general manager A.J. Smith was calling back, proposing the same trade — Manning for Umenyiora. Accorsi said no again.
The Giants were ready to select Roethlisberger when Smith proposed another deal. He would trade Manning if the Giants would pick the player the Chargers wanted with the fourth overall selection — Rivers.
Accorsi drafted Rivers, per the Chargers wishes, and traded him, along with their No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft, for Manning. And the Steelers ended up with Roethlisberger — albeit, barely.
“It was like a little mini-soap opera,” Collinsworth said.
Curiously, the Steelers were eyeing up Arkansas tackle Shawn Andrews with the 11th overall pick, partly because they didn’t think Roethlisberger would be available to them. They didn’t expect the kid from Findlay, Ohio, to get past the home-state Cleveland Browns, who had the pick right before them. But the Browns passed on Roethlisberger and took tight end Kellen Winslow Jr., largely because they had just signed quarterback Jeff Garcia to a four-year, $25 million contract one month earlier.
In his book, “Dan Rooney: My 75 Years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL,” the late Steelers chairman said he “couldn’t bear the thought” of passing on another great quarterback. The Steelers did that in 1983 when they passed on drafting Marino, the hometown kid, and instead selected defensive tackle Gabe Rivera. So Rooney said he “steered” the conversation in the draft room to Roethlisberger.
Fifteen seasons later, Roethlisberger and Rivers will meet again, two future Hall of Famers, still with the same team, still doing what everyone expected them to do.
“Eli was the perfect for the New York market,” Cowher said. “Philip was a perfect fit for the West Coast being a southern kid. And Ben was a perfect fit for Pittsburgh being from Ohio. There’s something really special about that.”
“Everybody thought my second choice was Rivers, but that wasn’t the case
– Roethlisberger was.” Ernie Accorsi, Giants general manager in 2004