QB No. 8: Matt Ryan

The number eight spot was a tough rank this year. For me, it came down to Eli Manning, Joe Flacco or Matt Ryan. While, it is a "what have you done for me lately" league, you can't completely ignore past success. So while Matt Ryan was undoubtedly better in the regular season, and actually won his first postseason game last year, he wasn't better than Flacco, and I'd still rank Eli Manning over Ryan.

Let's start with the good from Ryan. And there's a lot of it. It looked as if, in year 5, Ryan finally took that next step. He's always been a pretty efficient quarterback. He's never thrown more than 14 interceptions in a season. And in 2011, when he led the Falcons to a 13-3 record and home-field advantage, Ryan only threw nine interceptions. Over the last three seasons he has a 2.5:1 TD-INT ratio. But last season he threw for 4,700 yards, 32 TD, and completed 68% of his passes.

Perhaps most importantly, Ryan finally performed well in the postseason. Against the Seattle Seahawks, Ryan threw for 250 yards, 3TD, and 2 INT, but most importantly led the Falcons on a game-winning drive with about 30 seconds left to stun Seattle. The following week was just as impressive, going against the 49ers defense. He threw for 395 yards, 3TD, and 1INT, but the Falcons fell short 24-28.

As much as last season was an improvement for Ryan, we still can't forget the previous couple of seasons. Again, he's always been fine in the regular season. He's like Peyton Manning in that regard. Obviously not to that statistical level, but just in terms of how he plays well overall in the regular season, but once the playoffs arrive it's anyone's guess as to what he'll do. In 2011, the Falcons were the number one seed and hosting the Packers in the Divisional Round. The Packers rolled into Atlanta and trounced Matt Ryan's team, 48-21! Ryan was pretty poor, and the ultimate check-down master, throwing for only 186 yards, 1TD, and 2INT. The following year, the Falcons travelled to New York in the playoffs, to take on the Giants. It was an embarrassing performance for the whole team, but Ryan led them to 0 points! Their only two points came via a safety. Ryan again threw for only 199 yards, 0TD, and 0INT.

Ryan is one of the games best young quarterbacks, and if he continues to build on last year's success then he'll be alright. But I need to see more than one year at that level for me to move him up the rankings.

Projections: 4,500 yards, 31 TD, 12 INT