MVN: Most Valuable Network

As the National Football League heads into Championship Weekend, NFL Outsider takes a look at whose stock is up and whose stock is down after a crazy divisional round playoff weekend.

Rising

Improbable quarterbacks in conference championship games
A rookie, a washed up journeyman, and a guy who was benched mid season because of poor play comprise three fourths of the quarterbacks in the NFC and AFC championship games. What's going on here? Why hasn't Joe Flacco unraveled under the pressure of two road playoff games? And what happened to the Kurt Warner who invariably fumbles two times a game no matter what? Donovan McNabb is a different sort of improbable because he's still a top flight QB, but after his mid-season benching, can anyone honestly say they saw this coming? Yes, this is the year of the no-one-saw-this-coming teams, and if you bought stock in improbable quarterbacks going deep into the playoffs, then you're in the money.

Edgerrin James
Indianapolis won a Super Bowl the year after Edge left. No matter what he has said publicly, that has to have gnawed at him constantly ever since. It's like if you broke up with a girl after dating her for five years and the next month, she hits the Powerball lottery for 50 million. Aren't you just a little pissed at yourself for not sticking a little longer?

For Edge, however, a shot at redemption has arrived. He's regained his feature back role with the Cardinals, leading the charge for a rejuvenated running game that has gotten Arizona to the NFC title game. Now he's only two games away from the ultimate lottery winnings.

Ravens and Steelers team trainer's salaries
The AFC Championship game will be ferocious. The Ravens and the Steelers are the two hardest hitting teams in football and you can bet there'll be some licks laid this weekend. If it were up to me, I'd give these guys raises because they'll be working overtime both before, during, and after the game to keep their players off the stretchers.

Falling

Jake Delhomme
Poor Jake. It's hard to see such a likable guy have such a bad performance. Actually, "bad" might not be a strong enough word. "Worst" might be more appropriate. It's quite possible that Delhomme had the worst game ever by a quarterback in the playoffs. Five picks and a fumble when you're at home as a No. 2 seed against a 9-7 regular season team. It'll be a long time before Jake forgets about this one.

Titans ball security
Tennessee turned the ball over three times, the Ravens coughed it up zero times. In reality, Baltimore should have run away with this game with a huge turnover discrepancy like that. I guess it's a testament to how good Tennessee is. To keep the game tied all the way up to last seconds with a -3 turnover ratio is a monumental feat. Tennessee is a better team, but their disregard for ball security cost them a chance at playing for a Super Bowl title.

Eli Manning
This was his chance. This was the game where Eli would make the leap to NFL superstar status by carrying his team to victory despite all the obstacles. No Plax, windy conditions, a sputtering running game, a white-hot Eagles opponent; all significant barriers to overcome for most quarterbacks in the league.

Eli had an opportunity to separate himself from the "most quarterbacks in the league" title and join his brother and a few select others as NFL QBs who can do anything. Unfortunately, he just couldn't get it done. Eli had a great year and is certainly worthy of his Pro Bowl selection. But let's leave him out of the top-flight quarterback discussion for now.