Ranking the Divisons: Quarterback
While we sit around and wait for the lockout to end, I thought I’d go through and rank the divisions by each position to see what division might stand above the rest. The most important position, as we all know is the quarterback position, so let’s start there. I’ll rank from worst to best. I intended this to be a fluff article that would just kill time while we wait for some football action, but I really started to think about it and boy I think I could re-arrange this entire thing again and still not be satisfied. This is kind of tough to do so take my rankings with a grain of salt and let me know what your rankings are in the comment section.
#8 N.F.C. West
There is one team in the N.F.C. West with a franchise quarterback unless Hasselback comes back. Sam Bradford looks like the real deal, but the rest of the division is littered with question marks.
#7 A.F.C. East
This was the toughest one for me here to decide between the 7, 6, and 5 spot. Tom Brady is excellent arguably the best player in the entire league which I could let skew the rankings up a ton, but the rest of the division is not very good. Mark Sanchez is trending up, but needs to be more consistent. The other two teams: The Dolphins and the Bills have major needs at quarterback. Again, I originally had the A.F.C. East all the way up to #5 because of Tom Brady, but reflecting on that more I knocked them down. Tough call for me. Jets fans will think the ranking should be higher, but I want to see more from Sanchez. I like his clutch ability, though.
#6 A.F.C. West
I have no problem if someone wants to switch some teams here . No problem at all. My reasoning for this slotting is that the A.F.C. West has one stud at quarterback and a couple of solid starters. Jason Campbell is not terrible, he’s just not great. Matt Cassell is a winner. That’s really what he’s shown since he has played at this league, first he won 11 games with the Patriots the year he started, and then he got the Chiefs to the playoffs. I prefer Campbell and Cassell over Fitzpatrick and Henne. Now, the Broncos are an interesting case. They have the talented Tebow who could be the future, or the solid and very productive (last year) Kyle Orton.
#5 A.F. C. South
Peyton Manning is excellent. David Garrard is solid and Blaine Gabbert is the future in Jacksonville. Matt Schuab is a near top player. I’m ranking this division based on Garrard starting next year not Gabbert. If Gabbert starts I’d switch the A.F.C. South with a team below it in the rankings here. I think Garrard is under-appreciated. He’s not great, but he’s just a solid player. The Titans hope to have their franchise quarterback as well. This is the Tom Brady thing again. Manning is great, but getting close to the end of his career and two teams in the division are in transition.
#4 A.F.C. North
This division is very top heavy with the quarterback play. I’m going to assume that Carson Palmer is not gone from the Bengals yet. That leaves the division with Big Ben (very good), Joe Flacco (good), Colt McCoy (?) and Carson Palmer (pretty good), Andy Dalton (?). Each team has their future quarterback right now, which is a plus and Big Ben and Flacco are good players. Again if you thought that the A.F.C. North was the 7th best QB division I can see the argument there, but my reasoning for having them this high is that the top two are really pretty good and Carson Palmer is a good #3 quarterback. If Palmer is 100 percent out they could plummet.
3 N.F.C. North
Aaron Rodgers excellent. Jay Cutler not bad, Joe Webb and Christian Ponder are unknowns and I’m going to give Matthew Stafford the benefit of the doubt. Once I started doing these rankings I realized how many teams had young and unproven quarterbacks.
#2 N.F.C. East
All of the other divisions seem to have two or more big question marks at the quarterback position. In the N.F.C. East there is one team with major quarterback issues and based on many power rankings that wont’ be a problem in 2012 when the Redskins draft Andrew Luck. Eli Manning had too many interceptions last year but also had a lot of touchdown passes and his completion percentage continues to trend upwards. Romo is a stat monster, and Michael Vick is the most exciting QB in the game. The top backup is probably Kevin Kolb who might command as much as a first round pick once the lockout ends.
#1 N.F.C. South
The N.F.C. South gets the nod over the N.F.C. East because the Panthers have two potential franchise quarterbacks (though Clausen’s chances aren’t looking very good right now). They also have one of the clear top five quarterbacks in the league and two of the most promising young quarterbacks. The N.F.C. South is going to be one of the toughest divisions in the league for the next decade.
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