Fantasy Football 2012: Choose Your QB—Tom Brady vs. Matthew Stafford

With the 2012 launch of my favorite football segment—"Choose Your Quarterback"—we'll start with a glorious head-to-head battle between Detroit's Matthew Stafford and New England's Tom Brady—the No. 3 and No. 4 passers in my early Top 25 Fantasy QB Rankings from a few weeks back.

Here's a week-by-week fantasy breakdown of Brady vs. Stafford:

Week 1—Stafford (vs. St. Louis) over Brady (at Tennessee)
Week 2—Brady (vs. Arizona) over Stafford (at San Francisco)
Week 3—Stafford (at Tennessee) over Brady (at Baltimore)
Week 4—Stafford (vs. Minnesota) over Brady (at Buffalo)
Week 5—Brady (vs. Denver) over Stafford (BYE)
Week 6—Brady (at Seattle) over Stafford (at Philadelphia)
Week 7—Stafford (at Chicago) over Brady (vs. N.Y. Jets)
Week 8—Stafford (vs. Seattle) over Brady (vs. St. Louis in London)
Week 9—Stafford (at Jacksonville) over Brady (BYE)
Week 10—Brady (vs. Buffalo) over Stafford (at Minnesota)
Week 11—Brady (vs. Indianapolis) over Stafford (vs. Green Bay)
Week 12—Stafford (vs. Houston) over Brady (at N.Y. Jets)
Week 13—Stafford (vs. Indianapolis) over Brady (at Miami)
Week 14—Brady (vs. Houston) over Stafford (at Green Bay)
Week 15—Stafford (at Arizona) over Brady (vs. San Francisco)
Week 16—Stafford (vs. Atlanta) over Brady (at Jacksonville)
Week 17—Brady (vs. Miami) over Stafford (vs. Chicago)

Final Tally

Stafford wins, 10-7

Breakdown

• We could have flipped a coin for the matchups in Weeks 3, 4, 7, 10 and 15—so Stafford's victory wasn't that decisive in the end.
• How's this for synergy? Both Stafford and Brady have round-robin appointments with the NFC West and AFC South teams. It's been a while since that has occurred with top-five passers.
• Stafford garners a slight edge off one scheduling quirk: The Lions have three straight home games in November/December (Green Bay, Houston, Indy).
• For the playoff period of Weeks 13-16, Stafford takes early honors in three of the four games, including the Week 16 Fantasy Bowl.
• Aside from keeper leagues, there's a 0.0-percent chance that fantasy owners will wind up with Stafford and Brady in the same draft (forsaking running backs and receivers); instead, they'll be left with the decision of whom to grab in the second or third round. On my board, Stafford will be higher; but both quarterbacks are conservative locks for 4,650 yards passing and 34 touchdowns.

Jay Clemons can be reached on Twitter, day or night, at @ATL_JayClemons.