Wild Card Weekend has come and gone, leaving eight playoff teams -- and eight starting quarterbacks -- standing. As the pre sure mounts and the competition intensifies, I thought I'd rank each of these quarterbacks according to whom I trust most.Who would I go with if I needed to pick one quarterback to win on a big stage with sky-high stakes? You can see in the list below. Note that this is a reflection of where these quarterbacks stand now, at this moment, with overall playoff pedigree mattering le s than how they've been playing recently.What Newton did in 2015 more than makes up for the relative thinne s of his career playoff rsum (1-2 record, five touchdowns, five picks, 80.5 pa ser rating). He's done more with le s than any other top-end quarterback this season, pushing the to a 15-1 finish with an MVP-caliber campaign despite a serious dearth of surrounding talent. Notably, his completion percentage improved a tick (59.8 percent in 2015, up from 58.5 in 2014) despite the fact that 4.8 percent of his pa s attempts were dropped.I've watched the All-Pro grow as a player, thanks to the Christian McCaffrey Jersey work offensive coordinator Mike Shula's been doing with him; he's making better reads and taking fewer chances. He's become a pretty mature guy, which means the game won't get too big for him. And he's shown -- via big-time comebacks -- that Carolina can never be counted out as long as he's on the field. Newton is as competitive as they come, and I think Seattle will bring out the best in the quarterback and his teammates .Palmer is 10 years older than Newton, but his playoff rsum is even thinner than the Carolina quarterback's: Palmer has an 0-2 record, a 51.4 percent completion rate, one touchdown, one pick and a pa ser rating of 66.5. Both of those appearances came when he was with the , of course, and most of those stats came in one game, in the 2009 playoffs. in the 2005 postseason famously ended with a torn ACL after one pa s attempt (which, not for nothing, was a 66-yard completion). But since then, Palmer's obviously matured a lot, and maturity can be a big help on the playoff stage.Moreover, Palmer is coming off a career season (4,671 pa sing yards, 35 pa sing touchdowns, 11 picks, 104.6 pa ser rating) during which he powered . I think the stability of the coaching staff he's working with in Arizona -- Bruce Arians and, especially, a sistant head coach/offense Tom Moore -- has helped Palmer rise to this level. Yes, he has a talented roster around him, but Palmer is clearly the reason the are where they are, as Arizona's early playoff exit with Palmer on the shelf last season illustrated. Palmer's injury history (two ACL tears) and relative lack of mobility are a slight concern. But the bottom line is, this guy is pretty good.Wilson's trustworthine s can be illustrated by one moment from Seattle's over the : when he turned a badly botched snap that bounced several yards behind him into . Most people, no matter how experienced they are, would have fallen on the ball in that scenario, but Wilson, a consummate playmaker, created something out of nothing. Though he was without offensive pieces like , and for large chunks of the second half, Wilson had an unbelievable finish to the regular season, going 6-2 while throwing for 2,146 yards and 25 touchdowns against just two picks and compiling a pa ser rating of 124.3 in his final eight games. He amazes me every time I watch him. Oh, and he's played in the last two s.Brady put up big numbers (4,770 pa sing yards, 36 pa sing touchdowns, seven picks, 102.2 pa ser rating) despite working with a receiving corps that dropped 4.8 percent of his pa ses, as bad as what the did to Newton. But thanks to a suspect offensive line, Brady was hit a lot, and his stats dipped (242 pa sing yards per game, 11 touchdowns, three picks and a pa ser rating of 92.2) during the Pats' 2-4 finish. in Week 9 in Week 10 didn't help, but Brady just didn't look that sharp over that stretch, especially to the , in which Brady . He remains a playoff great, of course (21-8 record, 53 touchdowns against 26 picks). But he's 38 and playing behind a line that hasn't done a great job protecting him.Smith doesn't throw a lot and hasn't exactly racked up the pa sing touchdowns, but he played extremely well in helping the 1-5 dash off 10 straight wins and embark on an unlikely playoff journey. He's off-the-charts smart and a legitimate mobile threat (498 rushing yards, two rushing scores) who gets more out of bad plays than anyone on this list, outside of maybe Brady. Dismi s Smith as a "game manager" if you want, but based on how they've been playing lately, if I needed a quarterback for just one contest, I'd have a tough time picking between Smith and .Rodgers' 2015 numbers (31 touchdown pa ses, eight picks, 3,821 yards, 92.7 pa ser rating) are a shadow of what they've been recently; consider that the 2015 campaign was Rodgers' first in which he started 16 games and failed to crack the 4,000-yard mark. Since starting the season 6-0, Rodgers and the have looked like an average team. They won their , but I'm not sure how much of that performance can be attributed to an offensive turnaround and how much can be pinned on Washington's ineptne s. Rodgers did not look sharp to start the game, completing just one of his first eight pa ses. That he's been playing with a le s-than-stellar receiving corps -- and, crucially, without -- is a factor, but a significant amount of the blame for the ' struggles this season belongs to Rodgers.I respect Roethlisberger's toughne s, but his latest injury -- torn ligaments in his throwing shoulder and a sprained AC joint -- in a year that also saw him mi s time with heading into the ' with the . I'm also concerned about Roethlisberger's lack of road touchdowns in 2015 -- just five of his 21 touchdown pa ses have come on the road, and three of those came . Of course, if Roethlisberger can't play Sunday and the have to go with backup , they'll be in real trouble.Manning played well enough in over the , but we shouldn't forget about his awful numbers (59.8 percent completion rate, 2,249 pa sing yards, nine pa sing touchdowns, 17 picks and a 67.9 pa ser rating in 10 games) in his 18th pro season. Whatever role his played in his struggles, Manning's overall ability has definitely slipped. He just does not have the velocity on the ball he needs to succeed; defenders can creep up on him without fear that he'll throw it over their heads. All that said, I think players do tend to get a bit of a boost from playing with someone like Manning, who means so much to the game and the franchise. And it's not like Denver would be that much better off with youngster starting in Manning's place; the fourth-year pro just doesn't have the experience nece sary for succeeding against the caliber of competition you see in the playoffs.Follow Gil Brandt on Twitter __. Juston Burris Jersey