Ranking Sam Bradford Among Starting QB’s

1. Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay): More so than any other passer in the game, Rodgers is a guy that is all but impossible to shutdown, and will carve up and pick apart any defense he faces.

2. Tom Brady (New England): Love him or hate him, he’s got four rings and he proved that talk about his demise a year ago was greatly misinformed.

3. Andrew Luck (Indianapolis): It’s only a matter of time before Andrew Luck takes over as the best quarterback in the game. He has the rarest quality that very few others have…he can win with mediocre talent around him and makes his teammates better. And now Indy is finally starting to add some more weapons around him with the pickups of Andre Johnson and Frank Gore.

4. Russell Wilson (Seattle): Two Super Bowl appearances in three years, and now has a playmaker in Jimmy Graham that he’s never had available to him before? Wilson’s star is only going to grow brighter in 2015.

5. Joe Flacco (Baltimore): Forget about the regular season numbers. Flacco is a much different guy come playoff time, he’s one guy that no team wants to see in the first round.

6. Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh): The Steelers haven’t been in the playoffs for awhile, but through no fault of Big Ben’s. Roethlisberger has been the engine that keeps Pittsburgh relevant and in as many games as they’ve been in. He’s coming off of one of his best seasons yet. He was 48 yards away from a 5,000-yard year, matched a career-high with 32 touchdowns, and threw only nine picks.

7. Peyton Manning (Denver): Manning is coming back to give it one last try, but I fear that this season could be for him what 2011 was for Brett Favre with the Vikings. By the beginning of December, Peyton’s body looked like he had already had more than he could take, prompting the Broncos to switch to a more run oriented offense. The arrow is strictly pointing down for Manning at this point.

8. Drew Brees (New Orleans): I think this could be the year we really start to see Brees level off. He still put up big numbers last year, but the Saints just weren’t nearly as explosive and dynamic as they had been in the past. He’s a year older, and it doesn’t help that the front office saw fit to strip him of elite target Jimmy Graham.

9. Tony Romo (Dallas): Durability is becoming a greater concern every year for Romo. However, he’s finally starting to erase the choke artist label that has haunted him his whole career. He came up large for the Cowboys in big games all year in 2014, from the road win in Seattle, to the final game in Green Bay. If not for the unfavorable ruling on the Dez Bryant catch, he might very well have taken Dallas to the NFC Championship game.

10. Matt Ryan (Atlanta): Solid performer every year. Over 4,600 yards and 28 touchdowns a year ago. However, Ryan just hasn’t been able to take that next step to move him up from “solid” to “elite”. Maybe that finally happens this year. Maybe it never happens it all. But I’ve always liked his game, and I’m buying that he still has an even higher ceiling he could reach.

11. Eli Manning (New York): Eli showed last year he’s still got a lot of good football left in him. Threw for over 4,000 yards for the first time since 2011 and 30 touchdowns for the first time since 2010. The biggest key for Manning was cutting his picks down from 27 to 14. With Odell Beckham in his second year and Victor Cruz returning, Manning could be even better in 2015.

12. Cam Newton (Carolina): Newton didn’t play particularly well last year, but he really started the season behind the eight-ball battling foot and ankle injuries and never really got himself right. With a clean bill of health and an exciting young group of receivers, Newton is in a position to really take a step forward this year within a pretty weak division.

13. Phillip Rivers (San Diego): The Chargers can count on him to put up solid numbers, over 4,000 yards and more than 30 touchdowns a year. But whether or not he keeps his turnovers down is always a mystery. Last year he threw 18 picks. He’s only had less than 15 interceptions once in the last five years.

14. Ryan Tannehill (Miami): Tannehill continued to take steps forward in his third year, eclipsing the 4,000-yard mark for the first time in his career and setting a career-high in touchdowns with 27, as well as cutting his interceptions from 17 in 2013 to 12 last year. The next step is for him to figure out how to win.

15. Matt Stafford (Detroit): I’ve never been a huge fan of Stafford. He was supposed to take a big step forward with a new offensive coordinator last year, but he struggled throughout the year and really proved to me that he can’t put up big numbers unless Calvin Johnson is healthy.

16. Nick Foles (St. Louis): Has a lot of questions moving forward, but in spite of all of his struggles last year he was able to help bring the Eagles out of some bad spots and helped them come from behind to win games. The Eagles had a 6-2 record when Foles went down and turned things over to Mark Sanchez. With poor weapons on the Rams and a division stacked with elite defenses, it’s going to be challenging for Foles to succeed, but I still have some optimism about what he might be able to do in this league.

17. Alex Smith (Kansas City): Textbook definition of a game-manager. Doesn’t make mistakes (only six interceptions last year) but doesn’t offer nearly a dynamic enough of a threat to get the most out of an offense.

18. Carson Palmer (Arizona): If Palmer is healthy, he could really help open things up for the Arizona offense. The problem is that he’s getting older now and has sustained multiple major injuries in his career. Hard to project just how much he has left.

19. Sam Bradford (Philadelphia): How do you feel good about a guy who hasn’t played in almost two full years, and has never proven a thing in this league? Playing in Chip Kelly’s quarterback-friendly system might actually hurt just as much as it could help Bradford. In Kelly’s offense, the quarterback is forced to take a considerable pounding because of Kelly’s heavy reliance on read-option plays. Having a quarterback with a glass jaw regularly executing plays like that and expecting him to remain upright just doesn’t spell success to me.

20. Andy Dalton (Cincinnati): Dalton has come to the crossroads of his career. Defenses are finding it easier to frustrate and shut him down. He threw for just over 3,300 yards last year, and a career-low 19 touchdowns. He’s also been a horrible turnover machine in his career, adding 17 last season to give him 66 picks in just four years. If he doesn’t figure it out this year, the Bengals may have to move on. He’s gotten Cincy to the playoffs in each of his four years, but lost in the first round every year. It’s at the point now where just getting to January isn’t good enough.

21. Colin Kaepernick (San Francisco): Major disappointment. Kaepernick has all of the physical tools to be a top-10 quarterback in this league, but he’s regressed so badly in each of the last two years and with all of the chaos that’s been going on around that franchise, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ultimately winds up taking Kaepernick’s career down as well.

22. Derek Carr (Oakland): Quietly, Carr had a very nice rookie year for the Raiders with 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Playing in such a dreadful situation makes his success all the more impressive. It’s always tough to be optimistc about anything to do with Oakland, but the team did go out and get him a top playmaker in the draft with Amari Cooper. Carr is a guy to watch in 2015.

23. Jameis Winston (Tampa Bay): Top pick in the draft, but a complete unknown on the NFL field. Like Mariota, I’d take him above the scrubs below him though just on potential alone.

24. Marcus Mariota (Tennessee): I really believe Mariota is going to have a lot of trouble succeeding in the NFL. The rules favor offense, but these aren’t PAC 12 defenses that he’s going to be facing anymore.

25. Robert Griffin (Washington): We know the drill at this point. Talent is there, but his body just can’t take an NFL pounding. Add in that Griffin already has a rocky relationship with coach Jay Gruden (who tried everything he could to keep Griffin off of the field when he returned from an ankle injury, going to both Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy) and the fact the Redskins remain one of the most dysfunctional messes in the NFL, and you already know a repeat of the last two years is coming for Griffin.

26. Teddy Bridgewater (Minnesota): Bridgewater had a couple of decent games, but never anything that got me excited about him. Never threw more than two touchdowns in any of his 13 appearances in his rookie year.

27. Blake Bortles (Jacksonville): Just 11 touchdowns to 17 interceptions in his rookie year. Failed to throw for more than 210 yards in his final six starts. Failed to throw for more than 150 in three of those six games. Finished his final two starts barely throwing for more than 100. Can’t say the arrow is pointing up yet.

28. Jay Cutler (Chicago): Why the Bears continue to hold on to Cutler at this point makes about as much sense as the Phillies keeping village idiot General Manager Ruben Amaro in power, and if I were a Chicago fan I would feel just as livid about Cutler remaining the quarterback as I do about Amaro remaining the Phils’ GM. Like the Phillies with Amaro, the Bears are going nowhere with Cutler as their quarterback. He’s been a bust year after year, and it’s time for Chicago to turn the page. They even tried to trade Cutler during the off-season, but sure enough found no takers that wanted to touch him with a 100-foot pole. Just cut your losses, start fresh, and move on.

29. Brian Hoyer (Houston): Hoyer is another mediocre passer, but he did well to keep the Browns afloat for as long as he did a year ago, despite all of Cleveland spending the entire year kicking and screaming for the Browns to bench him for the hype-train of nothingness that is Johnny Manziel. How’s Johnny Football working out, Cleveland?

30. Matt Cassel (Buffalo): It’s hard to believe that Matt Cassel continues to not only find work in this league, but find work as a starter. That just speaks to how barren true starting talent at the position is and how desperate teams are for answers.

31. Geno Smith (New York): Smith had another rough season on a Jets team that was doomed from the start, but actually manage to cut his interception total from 21 to 13 last year. However, he’s shown nothing to make New York feel good about him as a long-term answer, and with a new regime in place he’s likely just going to serve as a stopgap for a year until Todd Bowles drafts his own guy.

32. Josh McCown (Cleveland): McCown showed that his magical run in 2013 with the Bears was indeed a fluke. He struggled to perform well in an offense that provided him with two number-one receiver talents in Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans. And Cleveland doesn’t exactly have a welcoming history of success at the quarterback position.

Follow Denny Basens on Twitter @DennyBasens