Every year since the 2010-2011 season, NFL has been coming up with a list of hundred best players in the league according to the active players. It takes NFL Network about two to three months to reveal all the players from the list. Nobody is certain how the NFL comes up with this list. As in, no one knows exactly what the 'Top 100 Players List' is based on. When I first started watching these rankings on NFL Network, I thought that the list was based on performances of the players from the prior year. Then I came to find that the list is basically predicting the best hundred players for the upcoming season. For instance, if the list is revealed after the 2016-17 season, it ranks the players for how good they are going to be in the 2017-18 season, not how well they performed in 2016-17. However, once all the players are revealed on the list, most of us fans tend to believe that the list was based on performances from the previous season. Sometimes the rankings make sense, but most times, us NFL fans find these rankings questionable. Sometimes, this top one hundred players list makes me go bizarre with the players it leaves out or puts in the top ten or top twenty.
Questionable ranking slots from this year.
There are not twelve receivers better than OBJ! For the past three years, most of us have Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, and Odell Beckham Jr. as the game's three best receivers. The catches these three guys make, the routes they can run, all the game-changing plays they can make, their productivity, and how much attention they bring to the defenses, makes them at least three of the five best receivers in the league. We would think that every year these three players would finish in the top one hundred players list as top five receivers, and three of the twenty-five best players. According to this list, Antonio Brown was the second-best player and the best receiver entering 2018 season, while Julio Jones finished as the fourth best player and the second-best receiver. Odell Beckham Jr. must have made it to the list as at least a top twenty player? No, he made it to the list as the seventy-seventh best player and as the twelveth best receiver.
JJ Watt is the 84th best player? I know he hasn't played much in the past two seasons, but that shouldn't mean that he is not going to be the player in 2018 as we know him to be? How does it mean that he is going to have a lesser impact on the field than guys like Linval Joseph, Cameron Wake, Jurrell Casey, Cameron Jordan, Ryan Shazier, and Cameron Heyward? All those guys are good, but none of them have ever been as good as JJ. Do you really think any of these guys will bring in more fear to offenses than JJ Watt? When healthy, he is the best player in the game. After Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and maybe Luke Kuechly, I don't think there is anyone more important than him. By the way, Ryan Shazier is expected to miss all of 2018 season. How in the world he is going to have more impact than JJ when he is not even going to play the 2018 season? It is like ranking a retired player ahead of an active player, just because of the retired player played better than the active player in the previous season. JJ Watt shouldn't be ranked this low on the list at all.
Aaron Rodgers is the fourth best QB in the league? Yes, I know that Rodgers missed ten games last year. The most talented player who plays the most important position in the game of football was voted by his peers as the tenth best player entering the 2018 season. According to all the players who participated in this year's top one hundred players list, there are nine other players better than Aaron Rodgers? There are three quarterbacks better than Aaron Rodgers? Do the players think that Rodgers is going to have a down year in 2018 because he missed ten games this year? I just don't see Aaron Rodgers as the tenth best player in the game. The only player I would take over Rodgers is Tom Brady. I am not taking Brady over Rodgers because Brady is more talented than him. Rodgers is clearly more talented and gifted than Brady. I just believe Brady is a better player than Rodgers because he's more of a competitor and a better leader. Still, I wouldn't have a problem with players putting Rodgers number one and Brady as the number two player entering the 2018 season.
Wentz's Eagles just won the Super Bowl with him missing six games. He didn't play the last three regular-season games and the three playoff games before winning the Super Bowl. The Green Bay Packers after Rodgers suffered a season-ending injury, managed to win only three of their eleven remaining games. The Packers late in the year without Rodgers barely beat the 0-16 Cleveland Browns. That's how bad the Packers were without Rodgers! With Rodgers, the Packers are a Super Bowl contender, and without him, they are not even a playoff team. Aaron Rodgers is a better player and more valuable to his team, than Wentz is to his team. Maybe later in the future, Wentz could be better than Rodgers, but right now, Aaron Rodgers is the man! He shouldn't have been ranked any lower than number two.
Jimmy G is not better than Kirk Cousins! The most eye-popping ranking from this year's top one hundred players' list was Jimmy Garaopplo ranked four spots ahead of Kirk Cousins. If you say that Jimmy G has a higher sealing, a brighter future than Kirk Cousins, then you might be right. If you say that Jimmy G is already a better quarterback and more proven than Kirk Cousins, then you are just being delusional. Yes, I know Jimmy G sat behind Tom Brady for three and a half years. I also know that he is 7-0 in his seven starts with the Patriots and the 49ers. However, he hasn't been a starter for a full season yet. He hasn't been asked to lead his team to the playoffs yet. Oh, he has never passed for over 4,000 yards in a season. Kirk Cousins already has three seasons with 4,000 passing yards. Last year, Kirk Cousins with no star receivers, without his all-pro tight-end Jordan Reed, without any running game, and with no protection from his offensive line, was able to pass for over 4,000 yards, tossed 27 touchdowns to only 13 interceptions, and completed over 64 percent of his passes.
Last year, Kirk Cousins was able to lead the dysfunctional Washington Redskins to seven wins. This year he will be playing for the Minnesota Vikings who went all the way to the NFC Title game with their third-string quarterback. This year with the Vikings, Cousins will have two stud wide receivers, a solid tight-end, a promising young running back, and a great coach in Mike Zimmer. Cousins is going to be great in the upcoming 2018 season. Not so sure about how Jimmy G would do. Garoppolo last season did help the 49ers go on a five-game winning streak, but that was after his 49ers had been eliminated from the playoffs. Winning five games late in the year after your team had been eliminated, doesn't make you better than someone who is already proven and who has done so much with so little. As Jalen Ramsey said, Jimmy Garaoppolo shouldn't have made it to this year's top one hundred players list.
So is this 'Top 100 Players List' legit? When you put twelve receivers ahead of Odell Beckham Jr., I would say no. When you put eighty-three players, especially a player in Ryan Shazier who won't even be playing in the 2018 season, ahead of JJ Watt, I would say this list is not legit. When you put nine players and three quarterbacks (THREE!) ahead of Aaron Rodgers, then I would say this list is nothing but a joke. Finally, when you put Jimmy G with only seven starts ahead of Kirk Cousins who has three full seasons under his belt, then I would say that this top one hundred players list has no credibility.
Please comment if you agree or disagree.
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