Way Post-Super Bowl, Pre-Draft NFL Quarterback Ratings

Instead of doing this right after the Super Bowl this year, I opted instead for a crazy tournament where a simulator determined that the 1999 St. Louis Rams were the greatest team of all time (or at least, the greatest Super Bowl winner).

Two months later, ESPN finally did what they did last year and added a ranking poll of 34 NFL quarterbacks. Being the sucker I am, I went for it.

Obviously there's some debate in terms of particular order, but like I did last year, I'm going to separate these quarterbacks into tiers. The tier names may change, but the principle is pretty much the same. I'm also including the overall SportsNation rankings as of the time I submitted my list.

Looking Ahead: 2013 NFL QB Power Rankings

I spent most of my weekend at home sick and missed out on getting to North Central for basketball, but I was feeling better on Sunday in time to watch what really turned out to be a fun Super Bowl. I'm happy for Ray Lewis getting to go out with a ring, and given the whining out of San Francisco and 49er fans around the country. Short, simple note: given A), the way the officials called the whole game; and B), the fact that there was definitely some mutual contact on that 4th and goal play, it was a good no call. The players were allowed to play (maybe to a fault, given some of the fighting that occurred) and in a mutual contact situation, don't throw a flag. Simple as that. Baltimore clearly outplayed San Francisco for most of the game and made the critical last stand at the end.

So with the NFL season now complete and I look for other stuff to write about, I was finally coaxed into a thought I had been having when I saw ESPN's SportsNation having fans rank the 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL (I'm assuming as of Week 17 for the non-playoff teams). SportsNation collectively showed a pretty good knowledge of the quarterbacks, and you can see their picks compared to mine here. I will go through my list below. I place a pretty high priority on postseason success, some of which relies on more than the quarterback, but at the same time quarterback play is a major indicator of how good a team is.

Ironically, Nathaniel had the same idea for today. It's like we're best friends or something.

Like Bill Simmons did with his QB rankings, I will put them in tiers, only I'm basing mine on quarterbacks from my Madden Franchise Mode that I am now a full 7 seasons through. The stats I include below (coming soon) for each tier are based on actual quarterback play over the course of these players' time in this virtual NFL.