When the regular season begins, one of the league's top players -- Patriots quarterback Tom Brady -- will start a four-game suspension, and the team will have a different quarterback under center to start Week 1 for the first time since 2001.

Jimmy Garoppolo, New England's second-round selection in the 2014 draft, is the next man up, serving as a springboard to today's topic: Which NFL teams have the best -- and worst -- backup quarterback situations?

Among the factors I'm taking into consideration in my 1-32 ranking: the readiness of the backups to start in a pinch, and the long-range outlook for depth-level quarterbacks. Additionally, it's worth noting that the gap in these rankings from top to bottom isn't nearly as wide as it is between the best starting quarterback situation and the worst. While quality depth is hard to find, starting-level quarterbacks can be extremely hard to find.

The top team in my rankings used the No. 2 overall pick in this year's draft on a signal-caller -- and gave its backup $12 million guaranteed in free agency: