2012 NFL Predictions: 3 Quarterbacks Who Will Emerge as Elite This Season

While there are currently only four quarterbacks in the NFL that have earned the right to be considered elite—Aaron Rogers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Eli Manning—there are a few quarterbacks that are on the verge of joining that list in 2012.

The select few that are recognized for being elite is constantly changing.

Peyton Manning was widely recognized as an elite quarterback in 2010, but after he missed an entire season due to a neck injury, his little brother, Eli Manning, took his place last year.

Here's a list of three quarterbacks that will elevate their game to a new level and evoke discussion about possibly becoming elite.

Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions

This might be a little premature, but Matthew Stafford is quickly climbing up the ranks in the NFL quarterback hierarchy.

Last year was the only full season he's played in his career; however, statistically, it rivaled the seasons that Drew Brees and Aaron Rogers had, which is certainly saying a lot.

The 2012 season might not be the year that Stafford makes the jump to the next level because he has to prove that he's able to win a couple of big games first.

However, if Stafford continues to put up numbers like he did in 2011, and the Lions make some noise in the postseason, his name will begin to be breathed in the same sentence as the rest of the elite quarterbacks in the league.

Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons

There are only a handful of quarterbacks that I'd rather have on my team than Matt Ryan. He possesses all of the skills and intangibles that you want a quarterback to have: arm strength and accuracy, mobility—he's not a scrambler, but he does an adequate job at extending plays when need be—and decision making ability.

There isn't a throw that Ryan can't make, and that makes him especially dangerous when he's got Roddy White, Julio Jones and Tony Gonzalez running routes all over the field.

The knock on Ryan is his inability to win the big game—specifically a postseason game. In his four years at the helm in Atlanta, he's winless in three playoff games.

However, this will be Ryan's fifth year in the league, and that's generally the time when quarterbacks take that next step in elevating their game.

Ryan has the weapons, and now he's had an entire offseason to establish a rapport with Jones—one of the most athletically gifted wide receivers in the NFL.

This will be the year that Ryan proves he does have ice in his veins.

Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys

Romo, much like Ryan, is in a very similar situation in terms of needing to win the big one in order to reach the next echelon. 

He holds a record of 1-3 in postseason play, and that one victory came in 2009 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

It's seemed like Romo has been on the cusp of elite status for quite some time now, but the Cowboys' inability to win in the postseason, let alone make the playoffs, has prevented that from happening.

If this is the year that the Cowboys finally live up to the expectations, the national media will not hesitate to crown Romo as an elite quarterback in the NFL.