| Rank | Player | Team | 2015 Avg PPG |
| 1 | Cam Newton | CAR | 24.3 |
| 2 | Tom Brady | NE | 21.5 |
| 3 | Aaron Rodgers | GB | 18.8 |
| 4 | Ben Roethlisberger | PIT | 19 |
| 5 | Russell Wilson | SEA | 21 |
| 6 | Andrew Luck | IND | 18.7 |
| 7 | Carson Palmer | ARI | 19.3 |
| 8 | Tyrod Taylor | BUF | 19.3 |
| 9 | Andy Dalton | CIN | 18.8 |
| 10 | Blake Bortles | JAC | 19.8 |
| 11 | Philip Rivers | SD | 17.8 |
| 12 | Derek Carr | OAK | 17.1 |
| 13 | Marcus Mariota | TEN | 17.5 |
| 14 | Drew Brees | NO | 20.4 |
| 15 | Ryan Fitzpatrick | NYJ | 17.8 |
| 16 | Kirk Cousins | WAS | 18.3 |
| 17 | Matt Ryan | ATL | 14.6 |
| 18 | Joe Flacco | BAL | 16.2 |
| 19 | Ryan Tannehill | MIA | 16.1 |
| 20 | Alex Smith | KC | 16.9 |
| 21 | Brock Osweiler | DEN | 14.6 |
| 22 | Jameis Winston | TB | 17.2 |
| 23 | Eli Manning | NYG | 18 |
| 24 | Sam Bradford | PHI | 13.9 |
In an effort to get started looking forward to the 2016 season, I’m going to make my case for all of these player ranks in the days to come but today I’m going to focus on the top five.
Cam Newton
I personally subscribe to the theory that drafting a Quarterback late and streaming, if necessary, is the way to go. That is how I got lucky enough to end up with Cam Newton in a lot of leagues in 2015 as his average draft position was in the 8th round! Newton proved to be exponentially more valuable than his draft status by winning the NFL MVP Award, being the highest scoring player in fantasy and, not to mention, taking the Panthers to the Super Bowl in 2015! I expect Newton to continue to terrorize defenses both with his arm and his legs in 2016 but he isn’t going to sneak up on fantasy owners this year – Cam is the #1 Quarterback off of the board.
Tom Brady
Brady was again dominant in 2016 after an offseason in which he saw his draft status fall due to the uncertainty of the Deflategate trial. The New England offense continued to hum as Brady threw for 36 touchdowns and 4,770 yards while only showing signs of slowing down after injuries to key starters on offense. With Edelman and Gronk back at 100% in 2016, Brady will make a run at the scoring title.
Aaron Rodgers
There aren’t too many fantasy owners that would see a stat line of 31 touchdowns, 3,821 yards and be disappointed but if you drafted Aaron Rodgers in the first (or early second) round of your fantasy draft, you most likely were. Rodgers finished 2015 as the 7th ranked quarterback in Fantasy, doing so with the forgettable crew of Randal Cobb, Davante Adams and James Jones tasked to catch his passes. I expect him to get closer to #1 status this year when Jordy Nelson returns and Cobb is back to a complementary role.
Ben Roethlisberger
Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell are arguably the best players in the world at their respective positions. Martavis Bryant is ultra talented and has not yet played his best football. The Steelers are expecting to get a fully healed Maurkice Pouncey back at center, stabilizing their offensive line. All of this before you even consider that Big Ben throws one of the best deep balls in the league. Roethlisberger may have the best chance to take the title of #1 fantasy quarterback from Newton in 2016.
Russell Wilson
2015 started slowly for Wilson and the Seahawks offense as it seemed the team was having a difficult time trying to work Jimmy Graham into their offense but that all changed after week nine. In the final seven games of the season, Wilson threw 24 of his 34 touchdown passes and added his only rushing score of the season as well. Wilson has developed serious chemistry with Doug Baldwin and the pair seemed nearly unstoppable at times toward the end of the season. Seattle has too much invested in Jimmy Graham for them not to figure out how to use him and Wilson will add at least a few rushing touchdowns to his total in 2016. This offense could be scary.
So who is your top quarterback on this list? Please leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter.
