I think it has to do with the fact that he's 5'10, he appears to be cerebral, defenses can't seem to get him down and when he's had opportunities, he's made the most of them. And he won a Super Bowl in his second year in the league. And the man seems to throw the best arching bombs I've ever seen.
He does throw a pretty arching pass. Even if he's throwing it into coverage.
I guess I don't see a lot of what you're seeing. He's great at making plays with the ball in his hands in space. He's obviously a bright guy and a feel-good story. He didn't win that first Superbowl, though, let's be real.
The last two games he's been a guy who won't take the open check down pass--even ones that will move the chains--when he's too busy looking down the field. He's thrown into tight coverage where the CB has inside leverage down field way too many times, and has been lucky that his WRs have been able to bail him out. He doesn't have great touch over the middle. If he has to lob a ball into intermediate coverage, it hangs in the air forever. He's great rolling out. He's great at taking the yardage the defense gives him if the downfield WR is covered and he's not in the pocket. He get's bailed out a ton by that amazing defense that keeps games that should be blowouts that put the QB in an impossible situation into manageable 7-point deficits. And he's got a head coach and an OC and a seemingly inexhaustible line in the media willing to make excuses for him when he has a truly awful game or string of games. Do you remember a lot of blowback for throwing 4 picks to one player in an NFCCG? Not all of those picks were on the QB, but a couple of them were just really stupid decisions. And the coverage of it during the game, even, was really really subdued.
I'm not trying to knock the guy, because I think he does a good job of doing what's expected of him to do. But he's nowhere near an elite QB in my book, and there's no way I'd pay him elite money.
