It's that time of year again. Camps are in session, grainy practice videos of one-on-one routes are going viral and real football is nigh. So let's go to it ...
Let's quibble with a list.
This summer, "The Top 100 Players of 2024" countdown, which rolled out over two weeks on NFL+ and concluded Friday night with a reveal of the top 10 on NFL Network, made history with the player voted No. 1. But did it make the right history? Did the players nail it -- or did they once again err in judgment?
Here are the top five things the voters got wrong with this year's Top 100 ranking:
1) Wide receivers take over.
For the first time in the 13 years of this countdown, a wide receiver took the top spot. While Tyreek Hill's victory is remarkable -- and a win for a position whose practitioners often feel slighted -- it comes at a time when receivers in general are more highly valued (dare I say overvalued) than ever before. The recent boom in quarterback contracts and the salary cap has been quickly followed by a surge in the average annual values that receivers are earning -- Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Mike Evans (WRs ranked No. 3 through 6 on the Top 100) each received new deals this offseason, with Jefferson earning a position-high $35 million per year. The top two wideouts on the list, Hill and CeeDee Lamb, have each publicly expressed a desire for a new deal; Lamb appears to be so confident in the market that he's holding out of Cowboys camp and risking fines, while Hill is seeking a pay raise after inking a $30 million AAV extension just 28 months ago. The wideouts are cashing in at the negotiating table, in the world of streaming and on this list. Not only is this the first year a WR topped the chart, but 20 receivers cracked the group (Hill to Terry McLaurin at No. 97), tied for the most ever. Again: One-fifth of the top 100 players in the league, as understood and voted on by the players, are wide receivers. Not the top 100 athletes. Players.
All this feels like an overcorrection by the voters, a result of them internalizing the biases of general managers and agents toward assets that directly aid the most vital position in American sports (quarterback), and of marketers and fan bases toward the league's flashiest personalities on and off the field.
Hill being crowned No. 1 in this year, of all years, feels especially apt. The heartland-based team he departed via trade in 2022 is coming off its second straight Super Bowl title, and the quarterback he left is coming off a second straight Super Bowl MVP. Hill is getting close to setting receiving records in South Florida as he and the Dolphins struggle to get out of the Wild Card Round. Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes, already a sure-fire Hall of Famer and the top-ranked player from 2023, drops three spots to No. 4 after leading a rag-tag WR corps featuring Rashee Rice, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Justin Watson to a come-from-behind win in the Super Bowl. Who's the real winner here?
2) Tailbacks and tight ends take a tumble.
The flip side of 20 WRs being named to the Top 100 ranking is that their ascension comes at the expense, as it has in the real-life player market, of running backs and tight ends. This year, just five running backs made the ranking: CMC deservedly paced the position at No. 3, Derrick Henry dropped 24 spots to No. 49, Raheem Mostert and Kyren Williams debuted at Nos. 60 and 78, respectively, and Saquon Barkley came in last at No. 86. (Aaron Jones and Bijan Robinson just missed the cut.) Never before had there been fewer than eight tailbacks on the countdown. The tight ends listed are the usual suspects: Travis Kelce (No. 9), George Kittle (No. 14) and rookie phenom Sam LaPorta (No. 80), with T.J. Hockenson a near-miss. This is the second straight year that just three TEs made the ranking, a slight that I hope is addressed at the next Tight End U convocation.
I'll lay off the voting players here: It's hard for them to show RBs and TEs respect when the decision-makers don't, as reflected in wage trends. But are you saying there was no room for Jones, Robinson or Hockenson in the place of, say, Trevor Lawrence or Eagles WR2 DeVonta Smith? Where's Evan Engram, who was fourth in the league in receptions in 2023? Or James Conner, who, despite being on a losing team, averaged the third-most rushing yards per game and earned his first 1,000-yard season at 28 years old, an age when some want to put RBs out to pasture?
3) For QBs, timing is everything.
Sixteen quarterbacks made the '24 Top 100 list, and there are a number of petty debates I could get into regarding the position that I'm going to leave to lesser programming. (Is Jalen Hurts really one spot better than Dak Prescott? How is Tua Tagovailoa ranked higher than one-time AFC champion Joe Burrow? Seriously, Matthew Stafford over Jared Goff?) Instead, I'd prefer to fixate on the QB bookends.
Lamar Jackson (No. 2) is the deserving reigning regular-season MVP; his leap back into the top 10 is well-earned and a great story. But Patrick Mahomes (No. 4) is a three-time Super Bowl MVP and reigning champion twice over. His Chiefs went on the road twice, beating Jackson's Ravens in Baltimore in the process, to reach the big game, and then he led a number of scoring drives while trailing to seize the Lombardi from San Francisco -- again. There is little denying that Mahomes is the QB of his, and perhaps any, generation. He has reached the level -- perfect season or not, A-level talent at receiver or not -- where he should be considered the league's top QB or MVP every year until he retires or diminishes, whatever comes first; he's in the LeBron stratosphere. Lamar's status as the league's top signal-caller, meanwhile, is as seasonally fickle as his daily availability for practice. Mahomes is scheme- and talent-immune from an off year, and therefore should have been considered by the players as the top QB, if not the top player, in the league again. (That the players typically vote for this ranking before the postseason, when Mahomes does his best work, is not my problem.)
Farther down, Aaron Rodgers' placement at No. 92 calls into question whether this list should reflect performance from the year prior or, like a new contract, be speculative of performance yet to come. Rodgers lasted just four offensive snaps in 2023 before tearing his Achilles, and while the four-time MVP assuredly remains one of the NFL's most talented passers, even at 40, he wasn't proving it last season. Rodgers is being honored for his longevity and expected return. Meanwhile, in the "last 10 out" that the NFL released, Joe Flacco was shown to have been voted the 107th best player of 2024. The current backup to unranked Colts QB Anthony Richardson, Flacco is being rewarded for his performance in 2023, when he earned Comeback Player of the Year honors after playing six total games last season and leading the Browns to a blowout loss in the Wild Card Round. If the voting for this ranking was held in February, would Flacco have even sniffed an appearance? Unlikely. But his inclusion in the discussion, and Rodgers' drop to No. 92, indicates that the players continue to suffer simultaneously from recency bias and a misunderstanding of what the criteria for this exercise are, if there are any ...
4) Condescending to corners.
Sticking with positional issues, what happened to players' respect for cornerbacks? As love for receivers surged, disaffection with CBs took over. Just five were named to the 2024 list, the fewest since the countdown's very first edition in 2011. The order of the lucky few -- Jalen Ramsey (No. 25), DaRon Bland (No. 31), Sauce Gardner (No. 38), Patrick Surtain II (No. 52), Riq Woolen (No. 91) -- can certainly be quibbled with. (It's hard to lead the league in picks when QBs don't throw your way.) But the issue at hand is more the dearth of corners considered elite enough for the Top 100. Where's the recognition for Derek Stingley Jr., whose five picks paced the Texans to a playoff run, or Charvarius Ward, who led the league with 23 passes defensed? (Not that we need another 49er on this list; nine is more than enough.) Why is Jaylon Johnson, Pro Football Focus' top-rated corner in 2023, nowhere to be found on the players' list? Trent McDuffie was damn near responsible for Kansas City's Super Bowl win but couldn't sniff the Top 100. As receivers reap the benefits of a pass-drunk league, CBs continue to not get the calls -- on the field or from their own teammates.
5) From zeroes to heroes.
My fifth point is typically reserved for the fallen and forgotten, and this year will prove no different.
Only one team doesn't boast a single 2023 player on this ranking -- New England -- and pooh-poohing the Patriots doesn't help #GrowTheGame. (Brian Burns' offseason trade to the Giants leaves the Panthers with no current players on the list, but he earned his No. 55 ranking in Carolina.) The players could've absolutely shown some love in the ranking for the likes of Patriots pass rusher Matt Judon, a four-time Pro Bowler and No. 33 in 2023 who, like No. 92 Aaron Rodgers, missed most of the '23 campaign due to injury.
Same goes for DJ Moore -- a wide receiver, I know -- whose 1,364 receiving yards (good for sixth in the NFL and fourth-most in Bears history) weren't enough to bounce Terry McLaurin's 1,002. Chicago got on the board with Montez Sweat at No. 82, but he was a midseason acquisition; Moore was a gale force in the Windy City from the get-go in 2023. The Bears WR's absence is an inane omission, but forget the Top 100 -- Chicago affirmed his worth when it handed him a $110 million extension.
Position-wise, let's show some love to centers, please. For the first time since the dark days of 2018, no center was voted onto the ranking. Creed Humphrey and Frank Ragnow just don't have the pop (or proximity to pop stars) that the retired Jason Kelce did, I guess. Elsewhere, my calls for more fullback and special teams representation continue to go unheeded, and while I'm not surprised, I am disappointed.
