TheDailyBlitz.com: Does Eli deserve to be the highest-paid player?

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is in the final year of his rookie contract.

And, per Ralph Vacchiano of the NY Daily News, Manning's agents, who are in negotiations with the Giants, seek a deal that would "make him the highest-paid player" in the league. Both sides are far apart in their discussions, according to Vacchiano.

Vacchiano writes that, "most league sources think he’ll get an average of around $15 million per year (seven or eight years, $110-120 million with $40 million-plus in guarantees), which would make him right now the NFL’s highest-paid player (based on the average value)."

Manning says he's not concerned whether he's the highest-paid player or not. Instead, he's focusing on the job at hand.

"I'll leave it to my agent and the Giants," Manning said. "They'll figure out all the details. My job is to prepare, get this team ready and let everything else play itself out."

In general, Manning doesn't seem to get caught up in the superficial stuff. And (a part of) an agent's job is to maximize the size of a contract for the client.

But there is no way that Eli deserves to be the highest-paid player in the NFL.

Yeah, he led the Giants to a Super Bowl victory. In fact, his escape from a sack was nearly as remarkable as David Tyree's catch in their Super Bowl victory.

And Manning had his best statistical season of his career setting career marks in QB Rating (86.4), completion percentage (60.3%) and TD:INT ratio (21:10).

Yet he struggled down the stretch without the services of the gun-toting Plaxing Burress.

In the final four games of the regular season, Manning finished with a QB Rating of 69.8, completion percentage of 54.6 percent and 153.5 passing yards per game (career average is 200+ yards per game) with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Last year's numbers in the Giants' only post-season game were even worse - 15/29, 0 TD, 2 INT, 40.7 QB Rating.

There is no doubt that Manning is a franchise QB. But, on the hand, he is not the franchise QB (of all franchise QBs).