Saints defensive end Cam Jordan has a little issue with the most recently revealed portion of NFL Network's Top 100 Players of 2017 list.
While he was diplomatic toward Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who came in at No. 14, he was bewildered by his own quarterback sitting at No. 16.
"Dak being No. 14, he deserves that honor, you can't knock that," Jordan said on NFL Total Access Tuesday. "I will say, I don't know what the sample size is for this ranking system but everyone knows Drew (Brees) is a perennial top five guy. You talk about yards in the air, the king of the air, you're normally talking about Drew. That's on us as a defense. We gotta step up. That's on me as a player to be better and to strive to be better next year.
"I'm not going to split leading the league in TFLs next year, I'm going to own it. Once we push that, we make it to the playoffs, become the third NFC South team to go to the Super Bowl, you have the notoriety to put you in the top three."
It's nice of Jordan to sort of blame himself and the Saints' defense for Brees coming up short, but I think the NFL might have simply hit a bit of Brees fatigue. This happens when great players are great for so long that people begin to expect what they've seen year in and year out instead of being amazed by it. Brees is the NFL's all-time leader in completion percentage, he's third in passing yards behind only Peyton Manning and Brett Favre, third in touchdowns, seventh in passer rating and first in yards per game.
Only nine times in NFL history has a player thrown for 5,000 or more yards in a season. Brees accounts for five of those times, with the other quarterbacks being Dan Marino, Matt Stafford, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. No one else has even done it twice.
One of the interesting things about the Top 100 list is that it serves as a yearly time capsule. Players, just like reporters, analysts and fans can see their emotions and opinions swing drastically from year to year. With the finale coming up on Monday at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network, we know we will not get any resolution on the Brees debate this year, but we will see at least a few more quarterbacks to compare him to.
