The NFL playoffs are always exciting, and this year has been no different. The past few weekends we have witnessed 8 amazing playoff games to get us to the four teams that remain. The one thing that is similar throughout all four teams is an elite quarterback. Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson and Tom Brady are four of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. 3 out of 4 of them were among the top 10 passing yards leaders among all players, with Russell Wilson not trailing far behind at 15. Without an elite quarterback it’s becoming increasingly difficult for NFL teams to get far in the playoffs. Look at the teams who made the playoffs this year without a top QB. The Bengals lost to the Colts in the wild card round and the Cardinals embarrassed themselves with Ryan Lindley. So how do the quarterbacks who are left this weekend stack up? Here I rank the quarterbacks left in the playoffs in order of who I would want on my team this Sunday. 4: Russell Wilson Russell Wilson is a great quarterback, and it was extremely difficult to pick the worst out of all these elite quarterbacks. But I doubt the effectiveness of Wilson without the star team that has been assembled around him. He has the best defense in the league by a large margin, a top Running back in Marshawn Lynch, Pete Carroll is one of the best coaches in the NFL. Then again, Wilson is still young, he’s only 26 and already has one super bowl under his belt and is on the path for a second one soon. His numbers have been just as good as last year for the most part, in the regular season this year he scored 26 Touchdowns (passing and rushing) which was down only one from last year. His QBR has jumped 4 points and his turnovers have decreased as well. Outside of his passer rating (which dipped 5 points) his stats match up to last year or have improved. Still, despite this, when I look at the four quarterbacks still remaining and I had the power to pick any one, Russell Wilson would be at the bottom of my list due to reliance on other players and the fact that he is simply not as talented of a passer compared to Rodgers, Luck and Brady. I just want to note, that if I am taking complete teams, I take Seattle first with little to no doubt in my mind. Wilson looked phenomenal on Sunday( though he was going against the worst team left) but Seattle as a team with the likes of Wilson, Lynch, and Baldwin on offense combined with the best defense in the league with players like Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor. Seattle seems like the safest bet to win the Super Bowl this year, because they have a dominant coaching staff and a top offense and defense. But Wilson by himself in my opinion is not in the same class as the other three quarterbacks, though he is slowly but surely inching his way to their level. 3: Andrew Luck This guy is a star, a future star maybe, but he’s on his way. The Colts after Peyton Manning had neck surgery were just plain bad, they went from a 10-6 playoff team to a 2-14 team with the worst record in the league. They had the worst record the right year however, and drafted the quarterback prodigy out of Stanford that is Andrew Luck. And Luck delivered, they’ve made the playoffs every year he’s been in the league and is getting better every year. He has no one to throw to, his top targets? T.Y. Hilton (who drops every pass) and Hakeem Nicks, and they have virtually no run game. If you can get one game from the Super Bowl while being basically the entire offense, because that is what Luck is doing. Then However, I would rather have Rodgers and Brady than him this year, because Luck is only 25 and is still prone to making mistakes, and watching him closely you see it. Luck had 16 interceptions this year, 7 more than last year, and only two less than his rookie year. He also had 8 fumbles. Most of this can be attributed to his lack of receivers available, but I see other factors. Sometimes when watching Luck you will see him make many plays in a row correctly, then will just mess one up and make bad decisions that cause turnovers. These decisions vary from leaving the pocket to run to a deep ball that just doesn’t make sense. Once he gets older and has better players and will have the ability to hand the ball off without the guarantee of the back getting tackled in the backfield he will improve. Luck is one of those guys that I know will be a star in the NFL and I can guarantee you Luck will win a super bowl within 5 years, maybe less, because once Brady retires that conference is WIDE open, and look for Luck to be an MVP candidate yearly in the near future. However, this year I don’t think I look to him first when I am looking to get to the Super Bowl, I want someone with a little more experience and doesn’t turn the ball over as much, a la Brady and Rodgers. 2: Aaron Rodgers Rodgers is hurt, badly hurt. His calf is clearly bothering him, as he was blatantly limping down the field last week versus the Cowboys. But without that injury Rodgers is number one on this list hands down. Rodgers had an amazing season this year. He had a QBR of 82.6 and had 0.1 points away from the best QBR in the league. He also had the second best passer rating and was basically in the top 10 when talking about any quarterback statistic. Rodgers is the NFL MVP this year in my eyes, so how is he not my number one pick for the weekend? The reason for this is his injury isn’t something I can see him shrugging off and playing through without it impacting his play. He can’t run down the field and can’t even really leave the pocket, and he may have succeeded while being limited to that last week against the mediocre Cowboys defense, but if you go against any defense this weekend (especially the Seahawks, who they’re playing), he is not the same player we have seen throughout the year, because unless he’s going against an awful defensive line who won’t pressure him. My only other thing that causes me to hesitate against going against him at number one is his playoff record. Excluding the super bowl year and this year, Rodgers is 1-4 in the playoffs, his one win came against Minnesota at home against their backup quarterback, not too promising for Rodgers as he goes into the most dangerous stadium in the league on Sunday. That being said he is still Aaron Rodgers and played a fantastic game last week on basically one leg, I just don’t see lightning striking twice for him this weekend though, and that’s why he’s not my number one. 1: Tom Brady Brady number one on a list of quarterbacks? Not too surprising since this guy is in my opinion is the best QB since Joe Montana and if he can prove he can still pull out the Super Bowl win this late in his career their won’t even be a discussion of whether Brady or Peyton is number two all time, it’ll be a discussion of Brady vs Montana about the best of all time. Anyways, Brady this year was crazy, the first four games he just wasn’t good, remember when he was benched during that horrible chiefs game? Well afterwards he went on a tear for the rest of the season, defeating top contenders like the Broncos, Lions, Bengals, and Colts by considerable margins, and the only losses being the narrow loss to the Packers in Green Bay and a game against the Bills that didn’t even matter. Brady then had one of the best performances of his career, throwing for 367 yards and 3 touchdowns to help bring the Patriots back from two 14 point deficits in the first and third quarters. Brady has been the second best QB in the NFL this year after Rodgers and because of Rodgers injury, I say he is now the best remaining in the NFL playoffs. You put Brady against any defense in the NFL and I guarantee you every defensive player in the game is terrified. The man is a beast and with his team being the most balanced team he has had since 2007, Brady is gunning right for his fourth ring and is only two games away from doing so. He’s reliable and can carry a team if needed, and if I had a choice of any QB left in the playoffs, with Rodgers injured Brady is hands down my number one choice. Previewing the NFL Championship games Green Bay Packers at Seattle Seahawks (Seattle favored 7 points) This game was the first regular season game this year, and it will be the last game for the NFC this year. The week one game wasn’t close at all, with Seattle winning 36-16. The Packers improved greatly since then though, and although they struggled throughout the first few weeks of the season, they ended their season with a 12-4 record with wins over teams such as the Patriots. Seattle didn’t mow over Carolina as much as I thought they would last week, as the game was actually pretty close up until the fourth quarter when Seattle broke the game open. However, the defense still looked really good and Russell Wilson had one of his best games this year. The Packers last week barely squeaked out a victory against the Cowboys with a great game from Rodgers who was limping throughout the game yet still played well for the most part, despite not being able to leave the pocket for the most part. I think the matchups in this game favor Seattle for the most part, the great offense of Green Bay will be limited against the best defense in the league and Aaron Rodgers will have to deal with Richard Sherman covering his top target throughout the day. On the other side, the poor Packers defense will have to deal with the dominant Marshawn Lynch and a Russell Wilson who looked very good last week, and so while I think this game will be close, I’m not giving the Packers the win or the points as I think the defense of Seattle will limit Rodgers enough to keep the win in Seattle’s clutches. Prediction: Seattle wins 24-13 Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots (New England favored 6.5 points) The Patriots were the definition of up and down last weekend against Baltimore, they were down 14 points in both the first and third quarter and rallied back twice to defeat the Ravens 31-35 in a thrilling classic. The Patriots passing game was essentially the entire offense for New England as they threw for 408 yards and rushed for only 14. Facing a nasty Baltimore defensive line New England basically gave up on their run game in the second half and went to the air, and it worked. This weekend New England goes up against a defense in the Colts that were pretty mediocre throughout the year but were extremely effective in stopping Peyton Manning last weekend, something very few defenses have done in his career. Now the Colts travel to New England to face Brady, and while Manning has been showing signs of decline these last few weeks, Brady has done the opposite and is looking just as good as he was in his prime during those super bowl wins 10 years ago. I think this will be a game where the Colts are trailing throughout the game and it always seems like they are inching closer to taking over the Patriots, but in the end I think New England takes this game with less difficulty then they had last week vs Baltimore. The Colts defense looked good against the Broncos but were dealing with a quarterback that simply did not look like himself, but I think they will struggle against the dominant offense of the patriots. I see Brady having a few drives where he will march down the field and score with ease, and I also could see Shane Vereen or Jonas Gray having a good game against a Colts run defense without too much talent. On the other side, I think the matchup of the Patriots defense vs the Colts offense heralded by prodigy Andrew Luck will ultimately play a large factor on the outcome of the game. If Browner plays then the Patriots cornerbacks will cover the top two targets on the Colts effectively, seeing that T.Y. Hilton and Hakeem Nicks aren’t exactly receivers who will easily break free of top cornerbacks. Revis had a bad game last week and Browner didn’t play the second half, but realize that they were going against Torrey Smith and Steve Smith, two of the best receivers in the AFC, and going against the maniac that is Joe Flacco in the playoffs. Also know that Andrew Luck had 16 Interceptions this year and 6 fumbles, and I think once you combine the defensive skills of Revis, Browner, Collins, and Wilfork Luck will have a bad day, I’m predicting two picks and I think he’ll get sacked at least 3 or 4 times. So because of this I’m not giving the Colts the win or the victory on the spread, as I think the likelihood that it will be less than a 7 point game is highly unlikely, the matchups simply don’t work for the Colts in this situation. Prediction: Patriots win 27-17 Resources: Espn.com, NFL.com, Wikipedia.com | |