2015 Shuffle Up: Pick your Manning

With only seven months until draft season kicks in, we better get some rankings out to the people.

I'll be shuffling all the major positions out the door this week, one at a time, just to give us something to talk about. I'm not in any way married to these 2015 ranks or opinions; surely I'll forget many (most) of them by the time pitchers and catchers report, if not sooner. But lists are fun, rankings are fun.

A few rules: players at the same price are considered even; the dollar values are merely comparison tools and are arrived at unscientifically; and I refuse to rank rookies before the NFL draft. We have to draw the line somewhere.

[Join FanDuel's $1.75M Wild Card fantasy league: $25 to enter; top 14,530 teams paid]

Have a safe holiday and we'll talk soon, Yahooligans.

$31 Andrew Luck
$30 Aaron Rodgers
$27 Drew Brees
$25 Peyton Manning
$25 Matt Ryan
$25 Russell Wilson
$24 Tom Brady
$23 Ben Roethlisberger

Big Ben's year-end position rank: 20, 19, 14, 4, 18, 9, 17, 13, 19, 12, 5. Usually better real-life over fake game; not so in 2014. This Roethlisberger rank comes with the assumption that Martavis Bryant takes a step forward next year . . . Wilson's road fantasy haul was miles ahead of home production this year. That stuff often vanishes; no bias in 2012 or 2013. It would be nice if the team added him an elite weapon, something he's never had through three seasons (Golden Tate was fine, but you can do better than that, Seattle. Obviously the Percy Harvin experiment did not work out) . . . By indexed rating, Brady just had his eighth-best season. Nice comeback, but he's not anywhere close to the MVP. Stop it. His 2014 season underscored just how critical a healthy Rob Gronkowski is to the Patriots offense. 

$22 Cam Newton
$21 Tony Romo
$21 Eli Manning
$20 Philip Rivers
$20 Matthew Stafford
$18 Ryan Tannehill

If we draw the line when Odell Beckham started to go ballistic, Eli Manning was fantasy's No. 7 quarterback (Weeks 9-17). These ranks have him T-10 entering 2015. I fully expect Beckham to be a monster in Year 2, but remember Manning brings nothing on the ground, he has to deal with an outdoor schedule, and there isn't a dominant second option in the passing game (I'll believe Victor Cruz and Rueben Randle when I see it. A ranking that puts him just on the borderline of QB-1 value feels right. 

$14 Jay Cutler
$14 Teddy Bridgewater
$14 Nick Foles
$12 Joe Flacco
$12 Andy Dalton
$11 Colin Kaepernick
$10 Carson Palmer

Kaepernick is getting an organizational change at the right time . . . Palmer might not have Larry Fitzgerald next year, but Michael Floyd is ready to be a star if the Cardinals can get the ball to him . . . The Eagles Team Quarterback finished 15th in scoring this year, after ranking third the previous season. It's still difficult to say what, exactly, Foles is, but his upside certainly looks higher than Sanchez's.

$8 Alex Smith
$7 Blake Bortles
$6 Robert Griffin III
$6 Sam Bradford
$5 Mark Sanchez
$5 Zach Mettenberger

Bortles might be working with Marc Trestman next season? Yes, please . . . Smith was barely on the QB2 radar for 2014, despite solid rushing production and an emerging star at tight end. Of course you know all about the WR touchdown drought, and while Smith avoided negative plays (six interceptions), he simply didn't make enough big ones.

$4 Derek Carr
$4 Ryan Mallett
$3 Brian Hoyer
$2 Geno Smith
$1 Johnny Manziel
$1 Mike Glennon