Top 10 Fantasy Football Quarterbacks 2012

The season is just a few months away, and already fantasy football is right around the corner as well! It’s time with magazines showing up in stores to start to think about setting those leagues up and starting lineups and positions as well!

Today we start our tour around the fantasy football landscape, and today we do it with the “Top 10 Fantasy Football QB’s of 2012″

1. Aaron Rodgers – Packers

Make no mistake on this one – if your going QB in the first 1-2 rounds, and the first QB taken ISN’T this guy – something is wrong! Rodgers is coming off a historic season in which he was the league MVP, and set the NFL single-season record for passer rating (122.5) and broke the franchise record for passing touchdowns with 45. He also only threw 6 picks all year. Rodgers is the best in the biz at QB, and will be again in 2012.

2. Tom Brady – Patriots

I know many will say “where’s Drew Brees?” but I for one like the master, and that’s Tom Brady. He was 2nd in the league with 5,235 passing yards, and year in year out he gets the job done. Last season Tom Terrific had 300-plus yards and/or multiple touchdowns in all 16 regular-season games. The Pats added some WR’s around him that will help with his core of tight ends as well.

3. Drew Brees – Saints

Before you start to fret about Brees not being there come opening day due to a nasty holdout – think again. Brees has a HOF resume in the works with the Saints, and coach Joe Vitt and owner Tom Benson have said all along that a deal will get done, and while it’s ugly now, no worries, he will be there. When he is there, Brees is one the best in the game, throwing 46 TD’s with 5476 yards, best in the game.

4. Cam Newton – Panthers

We come up to our first tough pick of this years class, and it’s Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. He had a monster season last year in his first season with the Cats, breaking the record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (14), and he became the first player in NFL history to throw for 4,000-plus yards (4,051) and run for 700-plus yards (706) in the same season. He’s said he will be better in year two, and we agree with him.

5. Eli Manning – Giants

The Super Bowl MVP is coming off another fine season in the Big Apple, putting up solid numbers with a 92.9 QB rating with 4933 yards and 29 touchdowns. He will throw his share of picks, but at the same time, with a WR core that is very good (even without Mario Manningham), Manning is going to have another solid season that will likely surpass what he did in 2011.

6. Philip Rivers – Chargers

He seems to be the forgotten QB of the bunch, but always seems to have solid numbers if you go RB or WR with your first pick or so. Rivers in 2011 had a career high in pass attempts (582), and ended up throwing for more than 4,600 yards for a second consecutive season. He had a career-low 27 touchdowns, but make no mistake, the Bolts will be better in 2012, and so will Rivers.

7. Michael Vick – Eagles

Vick missed three games last season with the Birds, and didn’t get to 4,000 total yards between throwing and running, but we expect him to have a big rebound season in 2012. He ran for just one TD, and I would bet he does that opening day in 2012 in Cleveland. He had 3303 passing yards, and 589 yards on the ground in 2011, and we think those numbers will go up this season. Take a shot on Vick, it will pay off.

8. Peyton Manning – Broncos

Sure, why not? It’s a risk, but one that could pay off if he has a big season, and if he does, people around the country are going to win their leagues with Peyton under center. In his last season playing with the Colts, Manning threw for 4700 yards and 33 touchdowns. We have him at about 4300 yards and 28 scores with the Broncos in his first season. Not bad for a guy that won’t go till the 3rd round in most leagues.

9. Tony Romo – Cowboys

It’s time for this guy to step up and be the QB that everyone has had him pegged as being for the last 3-4 years. The now 32-year-old had a solid 2011, throwing for 4184 yards with 31 touchdowns as the Cowboys missed the postseason with a last game loss to the Giants. Romo and the Cowboys will be good again in 2012, and with 9-10 wins and a possible shot at the playoffs, you can expect similar numbers for Romo.

10. Matthew Stafford – Lions

Lions fans will whine and cry that Stafford should be higher, and after he was the AP Comeback Player of the Year last season, maybe he should be. But we have our reasons, the biggest being he needs to show us he can be healthy again for a full season, and follow up his huge 2011 with an equal or better 2012. He threw for 5,000 plus yards, and if he does that again, being at 10 on our list will mean a steal.