I'm going with
Darrelle Revis, who I believe is not only the best cornerback in the league, but the best
defensive back. (Corners are more valuable than safeties, in my opinion.) He can alter the other team's game plan by taking away half the field. You can move him around and match him up with the team's best receiver or put him on the second-best receiver and double the team's top dog. He also makes your pass rush better because of his coverage ability.
Simply put, Revis is an incredible asset for any defense.
I'd like to see all sorts of quarterbacks higher on the "Top 100," but none more than
Ben Roethlisberger. Coming off a campaign that saw him set a career high in passing yards and tie his single-season mark for touchdowns,
Big Ben lands at No. 26? Idiocy.
Roethlisberger finds himself behind a pair of stellar
Browns players in
Joe Haden (
No. 23) and
Joe Thomas (
No. 25), but where would Cleveland be were either one of those men swapped out for a franchise arm like Ben?
The
Steelers are in the playoff hunt every December because of their dynamic, tough-as-nails signal-caller. Roethlisberger could be 20 spots higher and I wouldn't mind at all. Maybe the Top 100's precious player-voters will get this one right next time around.
Given that the premise of this list is to project who will be among the best 100 players of
2015, having
Adrian Peterson outside the top 10 is faulty. Yes, the running back played in only one game last year, but it wasn't due to injury. Is allowing a running back a year of rest really the worst thing for him moving forward? Not to mention, the best runner of this generation has a giant chip on his shoulder and is now playing in a Norv Turner offense geared toward star runners.
Peterson is primed for a top-10 season, even if the players forgot about him when voting.
This list is flawed. Initially, it's pretty and exciting. Then comes the avalanche of arguments. I thought about
Dez Bryant's placement
at No. 15. He should be ahead of
Julio Jones (
No. 13) and probably in the top 10, too.
But this list is most disappointing in its defensive shortcomings. The player with the most interceptions since 2011 deserves a higher spot than
No. 11. Sure,
Richard Sherman saw just 71 passes last year (a 20-target drop from the 2012 season). And, yes, the best receivers don't always match up against him. But don't judge him for that. The "Legion of Boom" doesn't need to make those adjustments. Not when it's the best DB group in the league.
Sherman is the top corner in the NFL and a massive reason for the success of football's stingiest secondary. Get that guy in the top 10.
When will
Ben Roethlisberger start getting the respect he deserves? The
Steelers quarterback came in at No. 26 on the countdown, which undervalues how good he's been. Especially in the past two seasons, a 32-game stretch that includes a 65.7 completion percentage 9,213 passing yards, 60 touchdowns, 23 interceptions and a passer rating of 97.8. That is cream-of-the-crop, ELITE stuff right there, but how often does Roethlisberger's name come up when people discuss the very best quarterbacks? His placement on this list is symbolic of that disconnect.
I'm not saying I'd put
Big Ben ahead of
Aaron Rodgers,
Tom Brady or even
Andrew Luck, but he deserves his place at the top-10 table.
Players like
Richard Sherman and
Darrelle Revis are such rare commodities in today's NFL that I can't see how
neither is in the top 10. If Sherman is No. 11 -- which he is -- then Revis should be in the top 10. If you think Sherman is a hair better than Revis, you'll get no argument from me -- but put Revis at 11 and Sherman in the top 10. These are the two best corners since Y2K. The passing game is currently running wild -- but never on these guys.
In fact, the only defensive player who should be ranked higher than both of them is
J.J. Watt.
