Peter King's Qb Poll

America can't get enough of quarterbacks. Highest-profile players in the biggest game in the nation. Coolest guys on the field. So who among them is the best today? Most people would agree it's Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, but I wanted to go deeper into the argument, so I broke down the position into nine categories, added one more to factor in the best quarterback teacher and assembled a panel of five experts to weigh in: former NFL coaches Brian Billick and Mike Shanahan, former MVP quarterback Rich Gannon, longtime scout and former Browns general manager Phil Savage and NFL Network personnel maven Mike Mayock, who might watch more game tape than even Bill Belichick. Each panelist voted for his top five in each category, then points were assigned on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis and tallied. Where there were ties, I broke them.

One thing is clear in this survey, and in my mind too: No matter how you cut it, Brady and Manning still reign supreme, even though Brady is 32 (and played less than one quarter of football last year) and Manning is 33. Each was among the top five in six of the nine player categories. Finally, there was this slap in the face to Eli Manning—or to the Giants' brass, who last month made him the highest-paid quarterback in football: Peyton's brother was not named on any ballot in any category.

Best Overall

1 Tom Brady
New England Patriots

2 Peyton Manning
Indianapolis Colts

3 Drew Brees
New Orleans Saints

4 Ben Roethlisberger
Pittsburgh Steelers

5 Philip Rivers
San Diego Chargers

KING SAYS: The surprise is at No. 3, where Brees edged Roethlisberger. I respect the panel's vote because the easy move would be to put last year's Super Bowl hero up with Brady and Peyton Manning. But Brees's last two seasons—averaging 4,746 yards and 66.3% completions—were phenomenal. Big Ben had seven more regular-season wins in that span, but I'd like to see Brees with a Steelers-style defense on his side.

Best Deep Arm