Fantasy quarterbacks are a dime a dozen.

But only if you get the right one.

Every season, some quarterbacks come out of the middle-to-late rounds of fantasy drafts to crack the top-10 among fantasy QBs for the course of a season. Case in point, Matt Schaub of the Texans finished in the top five at his position by the end of 2009 in most standard scoring fantasy leagues.

If you can get one of these guys to pair with a bitchin’ starting lineup — which you mostly drafted in the early rounds when you were not wasting a pick on a QB — you should be on the road to a fantasy championship.

The question is, who will be this year’s Schaub?

Several quarterbacks fit the bill. Here are a few things to look for when assessing the mid-round quarterbacks:

1. Opportunity. Does the QB have significant talent around him? Is the team invested in said QB for the course of a season with little or no competition behind him? Have there been significant, positive philosophic changes to the offense this offseason that should help the QB?
2. Track record. Several QBs drafted in the middle round have had good fantasy seasons in the past, but struggled last season. QBs who burned owners last year are going to show up in the middle rounds, but not all of these are bad players. Last year could just have been a fluke.
3. Arsenal. The more play-makers around the quarterback, the better his chances of success. Seems pretty obvious. If all the quarterback has to do is distribute the ball, he has less weight to carry on his back every week.

Those are three of many qualities fantasy owners need in a starting quarterback, but three pretty significant ones in terms of mid-round quarterbacks. Chances are you will land a guy labeled as damaged good by owners after one bad year, but a lot of times these guys will rebound to produce solid fantasy football campaigns.

For this purposes of this exercise, we are considering mid-round quarterbacks to be those drafted in rounds seven through nine (average draft positions courtesy of Fantasy Football Calculator). This year’s candidates, in no particular order:

Brett Favre [QB, Vikings]

Weapons: Sidney Rice, Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin, Visanthe Shiancoe

Last week, Favre was a sixth round pick. Then the news of his retirement, non-retirement and all the other Favre drama we have become accustomed to the last few summers.

So it is a risky pick (he’ll play), but hard to pass on Favre for the right price after what he did in Minnesota last year. And nothing on this offense has changed other than backup running back.

Joe Flacco [QB, Ravens]

Weapons: Ray Rice, Anquan Boldin, Derrick Mason, Todd Heap

Flacco suffered the sophomore slump last season after a promising rookie year. The Ravens went out and added a play-making receiver in Boldin, the team’s first play-maker at the position in a long time (ever?).

There are Super Bowl aspirations for this team, and much of those hopes rest on the shoulders of Flacco.

Jay Cutler [QB, Bears]

Weapons: Matt Forte, Chester Taylor, Devin Hester, Greg Olsen, Johnny Knox, Devin Aromashodu

Cutler has the opportunity (the Bears sold everything for him), the track record (a fantasy breakthrough 2008 season in Denver) and even the arsenal to succeed (despite the lack of a big-name receiver).

Add Mike Martz to the mix and there could be plenty of fireworks in Chicago this fall. There still will be interceptions, but the volume of passing and the touchdowns that — hopefully — come with it should produce a top-10 fantasy quarterback.

Carson Palmer [QB, Bengals]

Weapons: Chad OchoCinco, Terrell Owens, Jermaine Gresham, Antonio Bryant

Palmer’s stock is on the rise with the addition of Owens, but there still are some questions. Last year, the passing game was fairly anemic and the Bengals relied heavily on Cedric Benson in the running game.

Not sure what was wrong with the passing game, but perhaps Palmer and Co. have figured it out this offseason. Slight risk, but the price is right on Palmer currently given the assets in the passing game.

Matt Ryan [QB, Falcons]

Weapons: Jerrious Norwood, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez

Like Flacco, Ryan suffered the sophomore slump last year. Too talented to pass up at the right value, however, Ryan should rebound nicely this year. He still have White and Gonzalez to lean on in the passing game and a stout running game behind Michael Turner.

Donovan McNabb [QB, Redskins]

Weapons: Chris Cooley, Santana Moss, Devin Thomas

Seems like fantasy owners, like the Eagles, have given up on McNabb.

New team, sure, but Washington coach Mike Shanahan seems to get the most out of all his offensive players. McNabb and his receivers should be no different.

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