The countdown continues to the start of the NFL betting season, and here at Bankroll Sports, we are focusing in on the Top 10 quarterbacks for 2012 and which ones we would want to be leading the biggest drive of the game if our season was on the line.

1: Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints: Brees isn’t the biggest guy in the world, but he is one of the smartest quarterbacks that the game has to offer. The Purdue Boilermaker essentially revived football in the Bayou, bringing a Super Bowl to a city that had just been through absolute tragedy just a few years before with Hurricane Katrina. Not only is his bond with TE Jimmy Graham as good as the bond that any receiver has with his QB in the league, but Brees can also say that he is the only man in the league’s history to throw for 5,000 yards twice in a season.

2: Tom Brady, New England Patriots: It’s only going to take a few throws into the 2012 season before Brady has 40,000 passing yards for his career, and he ended last season at a nice round 300 TDs as well. Brady just keeps getting better with age, and he put together yet another impressive year in 2011, throwing for 5,235 yards and 39 TDs. He has a great crop of receivers, including the best tight end duo in football, and as long as all of that stays intact and he remains upright, Brady is one of the best in the biz.

3: Eli Manning, New York Giants: What really impresses us about Peyton’s little brother is that he has the moxie to be able to win regardless of his situation. Manning’s biggest throw of his career went to WR David Tyree, who was basically nothing more than an average fourth receiver on most teams. When he lost WR Plaxico Burress and WR Amani Toomer in the same season, all he did was go out and make a Pro Bowler out of Hakeem Nicks and a big time receiving out of Mario Manningham. Baby Manning might not have the longevity or the career numbers of his brother, but those two rings speak awfully, awfully loudly.

4: Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers: We really might be screwing Rodgers over here, as he probably should be higher up on the list than this. After all, he took a team with no running game and no defense whatsoever to a 15-1 record last season, and it wasn’t his fault that his defense could stop the Giants in the playoffs. Rodgers easily led the league in quarterback rating last year at 122.5, smashing the NFL record in the process, and he is deserving of being called one of the Top 5 quarterbacks in the NFL.

5: Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers: Remember that this isn’t a fantasy football list. This is a list of quarterbacks that we would want leading our team in real games. Big Ben is as tough as they come, and assuming that his head is screwed on straight, there aren’t many quarterbacks that we would rather have down four with 80 yards to go. Roethlisberger is going to throw the ball more this year under new OC Todd Haley, and when he throws for upwards of 5,000 yards, it should be a reminder that the Steelers didn’t win two Super Bowls by accident under Roethlisberger’s direction.

6: Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions: We finally saw what Stafford was able to do when he was fully healthy. The former No. 1 overall pick threw for 5,038 yards and 41 TDs in 2012, and he proved that he can really lead a team. He chucked the ball a whopping 663 times last year, easily the most in the league, and he made up for a team that had no rushing game and no defense, just like the situation that Rodgers was in with the Pack. More importantly though, Stafford got the Lions to the playoffs, and the last man that was able to say that was Barry Sanders. If you’re in the same discussion with Barry, regardless of what the context is, you’ve done something truly special.

7: Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers: This can’t possibly all be Rivers’ fault. The Chargers have had all of the talent in the world over the course of the last six or seven years, yet they perennial underachieve even though Rivers puts up some amazing numbers. Remember that this is a man that has thrown for nearly 25,000 yards already in his career. Still, the lack of big wins in big games and the fact that he has never sniffed the Super Bowl keeps Rivers out of the Top 5, but there is no denying his skill and the fact that he is a legitimate Top 10 quarterback in this league.

8: Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens: Mock Flacco if you must, but remember how many playoff wins that he has over the course of the last several years. It’s not like this is just a running team with RB Ray Rice either. Flacco threw the ball 542 times last year, and he had 3,610 yards through the air with 20 scores. Those are pedestrian numbers when you compare them to some of the other big names out there, but we have to remember that the Baltimore defense often shut down opposing offenses, giving Flacco the chance to hand the ball off more. He’s not a waste though, and we think that he is one of the Top 10 QBs in football.

9: Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers: One year definitely doesn’t make a quarterback, but when it is the best year that a rookie has ever had in the league, it definitely is worth noting. Newton looks like a bigger, stronger Michael Vick on the field, and that’s why Newton is on this list and Vick isn’t. We still want to see whether Newton can win games that matter at this level like he did at Auburn, but we have more confidence in him than we do in some of the other quarterbacks that you might think should be in the Top 10.

10: Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts: Sure, we hear the complaints right now over Tony Romo, Matt Ryan, and Matt Schaub, but how many playoff wins do those quarterbacks have combined? Zero. Plus, we know that the Colts gave up on Peyton Manning when the opportunity arose to get Luck in the NFL Draft. Manning has too many risk concerns with his neck and he is at the end of his career. Luck is considered an absolutely can’t miss, once in a generation type of prospect, and though we haven’t seen him throw a pass yet at the NFL level in a game that counts, we know that he has the goods to get the job done, and we would expect nothing but a smashing success of a career from the Stanford product.