Power Ranking Every Starting Quarterback of the 2015 NFL Playoffs

It’s fun time in the NFL, as we’re down to the 12 teams that will vie for the chance to win Super Bowl 50.

Between now and this upcoming weekend, you will hear analysts dissect the eight clubs playing this Saturday and Sunday every way possible. And they will also break down the four teams that earned byes this week—the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals.

We are taking the time to rank the dozen starting signal-callers who are leading their clubs to a possible Lombardi Trophy. We will use the combination of this season’s performance along with each quarterback’s playoff history (and his success or lack of it).

Of course, we have a pair of unusual circumstances when it comes to two of the teams, but we will do our best, and in both instances, our most recent observations will come into play.

12. AJ McCarron, Cincinnati Bengals

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Will the Cincinnati Bengals have quarterback Andy Dalton at their disposal this Saturday night when they host the Pittsburgh Steelers?

“I’ll have another doctor visit on Monday, and we’ll go from there,” said the fifth-year pro a few days ago to Jim Owczarski of Cincinnati.com.

Four weeks ago in a 33-20 loss to the Steelers at Cincinnati, Dalton broke his right thumb early in the contest, and we haven’t seen him on the field since. Now, he’s anticipating good news when he visits the doctor on Monday.

“I’m hoping so. But again, it’s wait and see,” said Dalton. “[The doctor has] got to check it out and make sure he feels that would be a good thing. But I tell you what, I’m ready to get out of the cast.”

For now, quarterback AJ McCarron will continue to lead Marvin Lewis’ offensive cast. In his brief time running the offense this season, he has completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 854 yards and six touchdowns. The young signal-caller has been picked off twice and lost one fumble while being sacked 12 times.

If McCarron does get the nod this weekend, he hopes to do what hasn’t been done in 25 years. The Bengals’ last postseason win came in 1990 with then-starting quarterback Boomer Esiason at the controls.

11. Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota Vikings

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Like a few other quarterbacks playing this weekend or possibly next, Minnesota Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater is lacking NFL postseason playing time. That’s about to change in a hurry, as the NFC North champions prepare to face the Seattle Seahawks for the second time this season.

When you look at the numbers, they are far from imposing when it comes to Bridgewater. He’s thrown 14 touchdown passes compared to nine interceptions in leading his club to an 11-5 record. He’s thrown two more scoring passes in only two games, and four of his 14 aerial scores came in the team’s 38-17 win over the Chicago Bears in Week 15.

Bridgewater has run for three touchdowns but has also been sacked 44 times. No one will soon forget Pete Carroll’s club's 38-7 victory over Minnesota in their first matchup this season. The Vikings’ only touchdown in that game came on a kickoff return from Cordarrelle Patterson.

So we really don’t know what to expect from Bridgewater when he makes his playoff debut against a team looking to get to the Super Bowl for a third straight year.

10. Brian Hoyer, Houston Texans

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Because of his days with the New England Patriots, Brian Hoyer has been around for plenty of playoff games.

He’s just never played in one.

That changes this Saturday afternoon as the Houston Texans host the Kansas City Chiefs for the second time this year. In Week 1, Andy Reid’s club came away with a 27-20 win. Hoyer started and threw for 236 yards and a touchdown but was sacked four times and committed a pair of turnovers. The club benched him in favor of Ryan Mallett late in the game, which led to an unsettled quarterback situation for a few weeks.

Eventually, it all sorted itself out, and when Hoyer was available this season, he threw 19 touchdown passes compared to only seven interceptions. He looks to make amends this Saturday as the Texans look to end Kansas City’s 10-game winning streak.

9. Kirk Cousins, Washington Redskins

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The Washington Redskins are back in the playoffs for the second time in four years, and this time, it’s with quarterback Kirk Cousins at the controls.

But the fourth-year QB does have a smidge of postseason experience. When Robert Griffin III went down at home in the team’s wild-card meeting with the Seattle Seahawks with a knee injury, Cousins filled in late in the game in what proved to be a 24-14 loss.

But it’s Cousins’ play this season that’s far more relevant, especially as of late. He finished the season with 29 touchdown passes compared to only 11 interceptions. In his last three contests, Cousins threw for 11 scores and was not picked off.

8. Alex Smith, Kansas City Chiefs

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It seems like Alex Smith was the original “game manager,” and it’s a tag that he can’t seem to shake, even with the Kansas City Chiefs entering the 2015 postseason as hot as the barbecue pits come tailgating time.

This season, he’s thrown for 20 touchdowns compared to only seven interceptions, and two of those miscues actually came on Sunday in the club’s 23-17 win over the Raiders.

But what may surprise many people is the fact that in three career postseason games (two with the 49ers, one with the Chiefs), Smith has thrown for a combined 873 yards and nine scores without being picked off. Unfortunately, his team lost two of those three games. And this Saturday, it won’t find the Houston Texans an easy ticket.

7. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos

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Via Lindsay H. Jones of USA Today Sports, Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak has yet to say who will be leading the conference’s top seed into the AFC divisional playoffs in two weeks.

What we do know is that Peyton Manning is back, and his presence on Sunday helped the Broncos rally to a win over the San Diego Chargers. So does the veteran signal-caller believe he will get the nod at home one week from this Sunday?

“I don’t know, we’ve got two weeks before we play again,” said Manning to Jeff Legwold of ESPN. “We’ll see how I feel (on Monday), we’ll see how my foot feels. I got a good welcome back to the football field—somebody hit me hard and left a little message as he was getting back up.”

While Brock Osweiler did his best in Manning’s absence (and could start in two weeks), he has never played in a postseason game. Of course, the latter’s 11-13 playoff record is always a hot topic. This season, Manning’s 17 interceptions were the second-highest total in the NFL, and that came despite missing six games.

It’s tough to rank the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown tosses in the bottom half of this list. But that’s where we stand these days with Manning, who hopes to pull off an improbable comeback.

6. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

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The reigning NFL MVP has looked anything but the part for the second half of this season.

The Green Bay Packers are not NFC North champions for the first time in five years. Of course, back in 2010, they were too busy capturing Super Bowl XLV as a wild-card team.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers finished this season with 31 touchdown passes and only eight interceptions. For the talented signal-caller, that’s somewhat of an off year despite the impressive numbers. Last season, he was picked off only five times in 16 games, and entering this week’s playoff meeting with the Washington Redskins, he’s thrown an interception in three consecutive games.

While Rodgers’ postseason numbers are solid as well (23 touchdown passes, seven interceptions in 12 games), he doesn’t look himself these days. So we are proceeding with caution as of now, knowing he’s capable of getting hot when it counts most.

5. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

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When the Pittsburgh Steelers' passing attack is on, there have been few more explosive. But veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will have to play better than he has in recent weeks.

Yes, the 12-year signal-caller started only 11 games this season, missing four contests altogether and parts of three others. And somehow Roethlisberger came up “Big,” throwing for 3,938 yards and 21 scores in a total of 12 outings.

But with those numbers also comes some sobering news—three straight games with a pair of interceptions. The Steelers have relied heavily on the pass. That’s understandable with Roethlisberger, wide receivers Antonio Brown, Markus Wheaton and Martavis Bryant, and veteran tight end Heath Miller.

But this is also a team that has come up short in three straight postseason games dating back to Pittsburgh’s loss in Super Bowl XLV. Roethlisberger’s career playoff numbers are solid, but he has been unspectacular as of late.

4. Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks

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Apparently, the Seattle Seahawks’ perplexing 23-17 home loss to the St. Louis Rams a week ago was just an off day for Pete Carroll’s club.

Following a miserable 4-5 start, the defending NFC champions have won six of their last seven contests and come off a shellacking of the NFC West champion Cardinals in Arizona, 36-6.

Over the last seven weeks, quarterback Russell Wilson has thrown 24 touchdown passes and been picked off only once. He’s thrown for at least two scores in each of those games, and the Seahawks have averaged 32 points per game over that span.

Combine that with the fact that Wilson is in the playoffs for the fourth straight year, and you have to like his team’s chances. But when it comes to this list, he has some impressive company ahead of him…for now.

3. Carson Palmer, Arizona Cardinals

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It has been a career year for Carson Palmer, but now we’re getting ready to see him in a setting that he hasn’t been in since 2009 with the Cincinnati Bengals.

A year ago, the veteran quarterback was on the mend come postseason time when the Arizona Cardinals traveled to Carolina for the NFC Wild Card Game. Bruce Arians’ squad fell 27-16 and gained 78 total yards—the fewest by any team in NFL postseason history.

Now comes Palmer, who has started and played in just two previous postseason contests and lost them both while with the Bengals. Still, you have to like the chances of a signal-caller who threw for 4,671 yards and a career-high 35 touchdowns (11 interceptions).

While the experienced pro lacks playoff history, his play in 2015 trumps that little bit of a shortcoming.

2. Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers

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The numbers are imposing and could pave the way for the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 2015.

Carolina’s Cam Newton continues to impress, and you have to like the way he played on Sunday after an off day the previous week when the Panthers suffered their only loss of the season.

In this weekend’s 38-10 conquest of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the fifth-year quarterback hit on 21 of his 26 passes for 293 yards and two scores. Newton was sacked four times but managed to also run for a pair of touchdowns.

With 3,837 passing yards and 35 scores through the air (10 interceptions) and another 636 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground, Newton has his team playing exceptional football. It led the NFL this season in points scored (500), and both he and his team are on their way to the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

That’s a potent combination of factors.

1. Tom Brady, New England Patriots

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When it comes to NFL postseason history, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has his own chapter.

But given the current state of the team, should we be booking the four-time Super Bowl champion and the rest of his teammates for Super Bowl 50?

The defending champs are 2-4 in their last six games following a 10-0 start. Yes, Brady threw a league-high 36 touchdown passes this season and ranks third in the NFL in passing yards (4,770), but he’s also completed less than 60 percent of his passes in four of his last six games. That’s understandable given the vast number of injuries that the team has had at the skill positions.

But who would really discount the player who has thrown for more yards (7,345) and more touchdowns (53) than any other quarterback in league postseason history? Those are two of many playoff records that Brady owns, and after all, he has started in six Super Bowls.

The Patriots figure to be a lot healthier in two weeks when the AFC divisional playoffs begin. That alone is enough for Brady to earn a big-time benefit of the doubt.

Unless otherwise noted, all player and team statistics come from Pro-Football-Reference.com and ESPN.com.