Will Arch Manning eventually be the next quarterback to pull Eli?

It rarely happens. As shown in game makersIt should happen more often.

You should always consider the best odds in any given draft, which are due to be picked by an unlucky franchise, playing a power game in hopes of landing with a better team. But in the past 40 years, it’s only happened twice: John Elway in 1982, and Eli Manning in 2004. (In 1986, Bo Jackson told the Buccaneers not to make him their first all-round pick. They did it anyway. He’s played baseball before The Raiders took a seventh round on Poe the following year.)

So with the upcoming Manning recently choosing to play college football at the University of TexasIt’s never too early (okay, maybe it’s time) to ask if Arch will be the next person to say to a team that failed their way to the top of the draft, “No thanks.”

Players are reluctant to do so. Fans and the media immediately denigrate anyone who dares to infringe in any way Honor and privilege From the NFL version of the Sorting Hat. Some consider it. Few do.

Eli was able to do this largely because his father, Archie, I gave him a cover. With Archie, a former NFL superstar who would have been a Hall of Famer if he hadn’t been drafted and holding on to the always pathetic franchise making Eli’s case not play with the Chargers, Eli came out of the effort with minimal scars. to his reputation.

But make no mistake about it. Ellie didn’t want to play with the charger. He chose not to participate in large part because he was receiving mixed signals about whether the team really wanted him. That’s not surprising, given the severe imbalance that prevailed between GMAJ Smith and coach Marty Schottenheimer. So Eli took a stand and succeeded.

If Arch, thanks to a combination of NFL genes and access to Archie, Eli and Peyton, emerges as the top pick in any draft entry, why not take a closer look at whether signing with the team that worked his way up to the top pick puts his career between the hammer And the anvil?

If he thinks it’s the right thing for him, he has to do it. Every obvious top pick, especially at the center-back, has to do just that. Don’t you think that at some point last season (or at multiple points), Trevor Lawrence He asked himself why he did not refuse to go to the Jaguars? Even with Urban Meyer’s departure, the first year of Lawrence’s career was largely lost. While things could actually work out for him, he might be better off if he landed elsewhere.

It’s too late for Lawrence. It wouldn’t be too late for Arch Manning. And if/when Archie, Peyton, Eli, and/or Cooper launch a private and/or public campaign to get the team with the first pick to not pick or pick Arch and then trade it off, it won’t be easy for that team to refuse. Especially as more and more NFL teams appear to be gradually developing a direction, says Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, to seek volunteers, not hostages.

The issue will not be relevant until Arch appears high on expectations in the draft he enters. But that day will be here before you know it. When it comes down to it, Arch could be next in a very short line of potential candidates who are resisting a system that gives them no say in where they will live, work and play.

Whatever it is, it shouldn’t be something that happens once every 22 years.