Analyzing Sporting News's Top Five NFC QBs

With no [real] NFL action until September, it seems like analyzing Sporting News magazine's rankings of the top five NFC quarterbacks would be a good way to kill a little time.  So without further adieu...

These are the top five NFC quarterbacks as ranked by Sporting News. 

• Tony Romo, Cowboys
• Drew Brees, Saints
• Matt Hasselbeck, Seahawks
• Donovan McNabb, Eagles
• Eli Manning, Giants

Romo had 335 completions (5th in the NFC), 4,211 yards (2nd), 36 TDs (1st), and 19 interceptions (3rd-most) last year. 

Romo threw for a lot of touchdowns and yards, but he also gave up a lot of picks.     

Brees threw 440 completions (1st), 4,423 pass yards (1st), 28 touchdowns (tied for 2nd), and 18 picks (4th-most) in 2007-08.

Brees, like Romo, threw for many scores and yardage, but he only tossed one less interception than Romo.   

Hasselbeck totaled 352 caught passes (4th), 3,966 pass yards (5th), 28 TDs (tied for 2nd), and 12 INT (tied for 8th-most) last season.

Hasselbeck had the 2nd-most TDs in the NFC and was in the top five in pass yards.  Plus, he didn't throw many interceptions.

McNabb registered 291 completed passes (7th), 3,324 yards through the air (8th), 19 TDs (7th) and seven interceptions (tied for 2nd-least) in 14 games last year.

Sure, McNabb had a down year in 2007-08, but he still made almost 300 passes and gained 3,000 pass yards.  There's worse than that.   His ranking below is accurate because he only threw seven picks. 

Manning recorded 297 completions (6th), 3,336 pass yards (7th), 23 TDs (6th), and 20 picks (tied for the most).  The only thing Manning has going for him is a Super Bowl ring, which was mostly won by the Giants' defense. 

It looks to me like the list should be reordered to look like this:

• Brees
• Hasselbeck
• McNabb
• Romo
• Manning      

Sources: http://forums.charlotte.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=kr-cltpanthers&msg=34862.1&ctx=1