NFL Playoff Predictions: 4 Players Sure to Dominate Postseason Headlines

As the regular season gives way to the playoffs, the 12 teams involved in the postseason will find themselves under the microscope even more.

Beyond that, those teams' top players will be under even more pressure and garner more attention, though for various reasons.

In the following slides, I detail four players that are going to generate the most discussion this postseason as their respective teams each fight to reach, and win, the Super Bowl.

QB Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos

There have been few players in the NFL as talked about as Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, and that's not likely to end should his team keep control of the AFC West and head into the playoffs next week.

From the moment Tebow declared for the 2010 NFL draft, there's been a glut of discussion on his ability to play quarterback in the league, his skills and deficiencies and, of course, significant attention paid to his dedication to his faith.

Now that he has a starting job, the talk has only increased. Should Denver reach the postseason, Tebow will only dominate the airwaves even more.

In his time as a starter, the Broncos have gone 7-3, but they've most recently lost two games in a row, as Tebow's ongoing issues with passing the ball accurately and effectively are making themselves very clearly known.

These problems in the passing game will be the No. 1 thing discussed in relation to Tebow this postseason—quite a feat for a struggling quarterback considering the postseason also features three passers who have been putting up unparalleled performances this year.

QB Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

One of those three quarterbacks is the Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers. To say that Rodgers is having the best year of his career is an understatement—he might just be having the best season of any quarterback in NFL history.

Rodgers has completed 68.3 percent of his passes for 4,643 yards, 45 touchdowns and just six interceptions, and he's also run for three more scores. He's at the helm of the league's highest-scoring offense and at the very top of the MVP short list for the year.

The likely discussion about Rodgers this postseason will revolve around whether he can keep up this record-setting pace in the playoffs and whether any defense can effectively stop him.

Those are important, difficult-to-answer questions and, as such, will come up time and time again as the Packers try to win their second Super Bowl title in two years.

QB Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints

Intrinsically connected to any discussion of Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers' chances to continue their dominant ways in the postseason are the New Orleans Saints and, more specifically, their quarterback Drew Brees.

While Rogers' touchdown total is higher and interception number is lower than Brees', Brees is still having a career year, one good enough to include him in the MVP discussion as well.

Thanks to Brees, the Saints are putting up more yards in passing offense than any other team in the league. He's averaging 341.4 yards per game and has completed 71.5 percent of his passes for a total of 4,780 yards, 37 touchdowns and 11 interceptions—with two games to go.

When it comes to the NFC, the Saints might be the single team equipped to best Rodgers' Packers, owing much to the skills of Brees. Because Rodgers versus Brees will be a major postseason storyline, we'll be hearing a lot more about the talented passer as the playoffs get underway.

QB T.J. Yates, Houston Texans

Houston Texans quarterback T.J. Yates is in a very interesting and rare situation, and as such, he should generate a lot of discussion heading into the playoffs.

Yates, a rookie drafted in the third round of the 2011 NFL draft, was thrust into the starting job in Week 12 after quarterbacks Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart went down in consecutive weeks with season-ending injuries.

When he took over, the Texans were on their way to clinching both a playoff spot and the AFC South title, and Yates did quite a bit to achieve both goals. But since that Week 14 win, the Texans have scored just 29 points in two games and have thus lost them both.

Yates is both an asset and a liability. He comes from a North Carolina college system that is very similar to the offense the Texans run, but yet, he's still a rookie who is only taking the field due to injuries ahead of him on the depth chart.

Though the Texans have the second-best rushing offense in the league and one of the very best defenses on the year, it has been Yates' mistakes that have cost the Texans their last two games.

There is no greater unknown quantity in this year's playoffs than Yates, and, as such, we'll be hearing a lot about him in the coming days and weeks.