It's the debate of the moment in today's NFL. Which superstar quarterback is the best? Who, between that pair of excellent, future Hall of Fame signal-callers, would you pick if you had the choice? That's not the question that was asked of our Power Rankings panel this week, but it turned out to be the one we answered.
Yes, after weeks upon weeks of power-ranking everything we could think of in the NFL, we've decided to throw all qualifiers and designations out the window and make it very simple: Who are the best players in the league?
As was the case when our panel was asked to rank the league's top quarterbacks, Brady beat out Manning for the top spot in this week's power rankings. Six of the eight NFL bloggers polled ranked Brady No. 1 overall, and the two who didn't -- Mike Sando and Paul Kuharsky -- ranked him second behind Manning. The top four players in our rankings and seven of the top 10 (of the top 11, technically, since Michael Vick and Andre Johnson tied for the No. 10 spot) all play the same position -- quarterback -- which says a lot about the way we value that position.
"Quarterback is the most significant position on the field and can make the difference between a lopsided losing record and the playoffs," said AFC East blogger Tim Graham, whose ballot had quarterbacks in each of the first seven spots and eight of 10 overall. "It takes a truly special running back or defensive player to outweigh the importance of a quarterback. For example, Adrian Peterson is a sensational player. But without Brett Favre producing at quarterback, Peterson couldn't carry the Vikings to the playoffs."
So the question then became which quarterback was the best. The debate these days seems to be squarely between Manning and Brady, though two of our eight bloggers did rank Manning third on this week's list. We'll get to them in a minute. We'll start with the majority opinion -- that Brady is the best player in the league right now.
Ranking the Top Players: How They Voted
| Rk | Player |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Tot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DG | TG | PK | MS | KS | JW | BW | PY | |||
| 1 | Tom Brady | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 78 |
| 2 | Peyton Manning | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 72 |
| 3 | Drew Brees | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 58 |
| 4 | Aaron Rodgers | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 57 |
| 5 | Troy Polamalu | 6 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 32 |
| 6 | Adrian Peterson | 5 | 10 | 5 | -- | 4 | -- | -- | 6 | 25 |
| 7 | Ben Roethlisberger | -- | 5 | -- | 6 | -- | 6 | 5 | 10 | 23 |
| 8 | Chris Johnson | 10 | -- | 6 | -- | 6 | -- | 8 | 5 | 20 |
| 9 | Philip Rivers | -- | 6 | -- | 5 | -- | -- | 6 | -- | 16 |
| 10 | Michael Vick | 7 | 7 | -- | 7 | -- | -- | 9 | -- | 14 |
| 10 | Andre Johnson | 9 | -- | 7 | 8 | -- | 10 | -- | 7 | 14 |
| 12 | Demarcus Ware | -- | -- | 10 | -- | -- | 5 | -- | -- | 7 |
| 13 | Clay Matthews | -- | -- | 9 | -- | 7 | -- | -- | -- | 6 |
| 13 | Darrelle Revis | 8 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 8 | -- | -- | 6 |
| 15 | Patrick Willis | -- | -- | -- | 10 | -- | 9 | -- | -- | 3 |
| 15 | Roddy White | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 8 | 3 |
| 17 | Larry Fitzgerald | -- | -- | -- | -- | 9 | -- | -- | -- | 2 |
| 17 | Matt Ryan | -- | 9 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2 |
| 19 | James Harrison | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 10 | -- | 1 |
| 19 | Joe Thomas | -- | -- | -- | -- | 10 | -- | -- | -- | 1 |
