Here's my "as unbiased as possible" take on Eli Manning.
Is Eli a Top 10 QB in the league today? Yes. He is a great QB and you can have a lot worse (just ask Denver or housemates the Jets about terrible QBs). Is he a Top 5 QB today, or an "Elite" QB? No. Brady, Peyton (he will be back), Brees, Rodgers, Rivers, Roethlesberger are all better than Eli overall and I'm not sure about Stafford and Newton (could very well be in the future). An "elite" QB has his team in contention year in and year out: i.e. making the playoffs consistently. That's not the ONLY mark of an "elite" QB but it is an important one. I think it's very presumptuous to put himself alongside Peyton and Brady and the like when he has failed to be consistent.
Here's the playoffs and Super Bowl W/Ls of the Qbs you mentioned.
Playoffs: W-L SB:
Brady: 16/5 .762 3of4 [1]
Roethlesberger: 10/4 .714 2of3
Eli: 7/3 .700 1of1 [1]
Rodgers: 4/2 .666 1of1
Brees: 5/4 .556 1of1
Peyton: 9/10 .474 1of2
Rivers: 3/4 .429 0
From this list Brady is the best, followed by Roethlesberger with Eli in third. Peyton's main exemplary is his
2nd best in playoff appearances with 2nd worst in w/l ratio. Eli appears to be the better bet in the playoffs,
and clearly the better Qb than Rivers. Now, like you said, there is more than one mark of an elite Qb,
I think with his play this year and his playoff ratio have backed-up his boast; and I think he will
out-play his brother in general from here-on-out.