Questions Surrounding the Top Five Fantasy Quarterbacks

Every year there are questions surrounding players as they approach the start of the NFL regular season—and that extends to even the best.

Some players are returning from injury, some are dealing with new coaches, while others are looking to continue to play at a high level.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the questions surrounding the top five quarterbacks in our Fantasy Football Cheat Sheets (click to download), and look at the potential answers to these burning questions. The players listed are ranked in the same order as they are in the Bruno Boys Preseason Rankings.

1. Can Drew Brees continue to play at the same level that saw him fall just short of Dan Marino’s all-time passing record last season?

To say Drew Brees had a career year last season would be an understatement.

Aside from setting career-highs in passing yards and touchdowns, as well as a career low in sacks, Brees was just 15 yards short of breaking Marino’s all-time single season record. And the best part about this is that Brees is not only capable of replicating those numbers, but he’s got the chance to surpass them.

Pretty much the entire offense returns in New Orleans, including receivers Marques Colston and Lance Moore and running backs Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas. Running back is the weakest position on the Saints' offense, meaning that Brees will be asked to lead the team through the air once again.

Instead of wondering whether Brees has the ability to play as well as last season, you should only consider this: does he have the potential to break 40 touchdowns? It’s a distinct possibility.

2. How much will the change at head coach as well as the departure of wide receiver Marvin Harrison affect Peyton Manning?

During the offseason, former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy decided to retire, a decision he had wrestled with for years. This has big repercussions because for many years under the guidance of Dungy, the Colts were one of the most spectacular offenses in the NFL.

Dungy’s retirement also saw the departure of longtime offensive coordinator Tom Moore and the underrated offensive line coach Howard Mudd. In the long run, this will affect Peyton Manning and the Colts' offense greatly. Dungy, Moore, and Mudd were some of the best at their jobs and worked well with the team.

For this season, however, the effect should be minimal. Manning can run the offense almost entirely by himself and there are a lot of playmakers to enable that to happen. The departure of wide receiver Marvin Harrison stings, but the Colts had to deal without having Harrison last year and it didn’t seem to affect Manning that much.

3. Can Tom Brady recover from a torn ACL, and how much will it prohibit him from playing as well as he has in the past?

Tom Brady’s knee is an issue that has been discussed and dissected so many times this offseason, that it seems like so much longer than just a year ago when it happened.

Other quarterbacks have struggled returning from ACL injuries, most notably Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals and Daunte Culpepper, who bounced from team to team and eventually came out of retirement to play for the Detroit Lions last season. The difference between those two players and Brady is that Brady’s injury occurred in the first game of the season. Culpepper’s happened in the middle of the season and Palmer was hurt in the wild card round of the playoffs.

Brady has had considerably much more time to rehab the knee and so far in camp he has looked good. Brady also has the benefit of being behind a great offensive line and having great receivers to throw to. All signs point to Brady being able to make a smooth transition back onto the field, though it’s unrealistic to expect his numbers to return to the same level they were at in 2007.

4. Will Philip Rivers continue to play well despite injury concerns to the team’s top two offensive threats in LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates?

In the last couple of seasons, Rivers has grown considerably as a quarterback. At the same time he has had to do so while injuries to Tomlinson and Gates prohibited the San Diego Chargers from playing at their highest level. And neither player is getting younger as Gates will be 29 this season and Tomlinson recently turned 30.

Recovering from injuries is more difficult the longer a player is in the league. However, that does not seem to be the case with these two stars. Gates has spent his offseason in the weight room—a place he hadn’t spent much time in before—and came to camp looking leaner, faster, and stronger as he has put on weight onto his already impressive frame.

Tomlinson, according to his account, is not only perfectly healthy, but is in possibly the best shape of his life. Early camp reports confirm this, but it remains to be seen if he can withstand the toll of another 16 game NFL season.

Rivers was good last year when Gates and Tomlinson weren’t 100 percent. Imagine how good he’ll be this year if they are fully healthy.

5. Can Aaron Rodgers replicate—or surpass—his surprisingly good performance from last season?

Thrown into the starting role in the preseason last year, many believe that Aaron Rodgers, despite having spent the previous three seasons learning the offense in Green Bay, would struggle last year mainly because it was his first time on the field as a full-time starter in the NFL.

Rodgers immediately went out and led the Packers to consecutive wins, while throwing four touchdowns and no interceptions. He went on to finish with 28 touchdowns and more than 4,000 yards. That’s impressive for a first-year starter, but replicating that performance can be difficult, as Cleveland Browns' quarterback Derek Anderson displayed last season.

Rodgers’ statistics from last year prove his play is sustainable as he had a better than 2:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, had only two multiple-interception games, had an average yards per attempt of 7.5, and played really well down the stretch.

The entire offense returns to Green Bay, so don’t anticipate any kind of drop off from Rodgers any time soon. In fact he could finish the season as the second best fantasy football quarterback behind Brees.

————————

Read the full article here: Questions Surrounding The Top Five Fantasy Quarterbacks