This year’s class of rookie fantasy performers was looking like a bumper crop even before Doug Martin and Andrew Luck went berserk last week. Those two combined for more than seven football fields’ worth of total yardage In Week Nine, underscoring just how special this year’s rookie class truly is.

Every year, we fantasy owners hope that the incoming rookies adequately replenish the player population, and that a handful of them emerge as front-line contributors who’ll add excitement to our little hobby for years to come. I’d say this year’s rookie class is more than meeting those standards so far, wouldn’t you?

There have been a few rookie flops, too. I see that those of you who drafted Justin Blackmon based on my preseason advice have brought along crates of rotten produce, but I ask that you refrain from giving me my well-deserved pelting until after the show.

(Sound of angry murmuring)

Thank you, Justin Blackmon owners. And your drinks are on the house tonight.

Any discussion of this year’s rookies should start with the quarterbacks. The Class of ’12 might not measure up to the legendary Class of 1983, which included John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly, but it seems like it has an excellent chance to equal or surpass the excellent Class of 2004, which yielded Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger. In fact, it’s a good bet that the two jewels of this year’s rookie QB class, Luck and Robert Griffin III, will both be taken ahead of Manning, Rivers and Roethlisberger in next year’s fantasy drafts, no matter that the members of the Class of ’04 are at or near the peaks of their careers.