The NFL Top 100 wrapped up yesterday with Saquon Barkley of YOUR Super Bowl Champion Eagles coming in at #1. This is a list of the best in the NFL as voted on by the players. Let’s break down the list with absolutely no bias whatsoever.
Eagles on the List
Nine current and one former Eagle made the list. The Eagles had the most followed by the Lions with 7 and the Texans with 6.5 considering Laremy Tunsil (86) went to the Commanders. Here is where the Birds landed:
- 95 – Josh Sweat
- 69 – Jordan Mailata
- 60 – Cooper DeJean
- 49 – Quinyon Mitchell
- 43 – Jalen Carter
- 29 – AJ Brown
- 26 – Zack Baun
- 23 – Lane Johnson
- 19 – Jalen Hurts
- 1 – Saquon Barkley
All in all, 9 Eagles were considered to be in the Top-69 (nice) in the league. Just taking 53 players on 32 teams, that’s 1,696 players. We are talking the top 5% here!
Eagles Not on the List
The biggest snub is clearly DeVonta Smith. 16 receivers made the list including Brian Thomas (61), Malik Nabers (67), Tee Higgins (77), Jerry Jeudy (82), Drake London (97), and Ladd McConkey (100). Are they crazy? This isn’t a fantasy team where WR1 gets more touches, this is pure skill and meaning to a football team, both categories in which Smith is elite. I can’t imagine any of these teams wouldn’t trade 1 for 1 for Smith right now if salary weren’t in the conversation. Speaking of which, his salary is even lower than it could be, because he voluntarily took less to help the Eagles build a better team. Jerry Jeudy? Are they serious?
I understand Nolan Smith not making the list in theory. He got better each and every week last year and may be going under the radar to other players. HOWEVER, Josh Sweat at 95 over Smith? How is that possible when Smith was better than Sweat all of last season? Everyone is really overrating his 2.5 sacks in the Super Bowl. In no universe is he better than Smith.
He isn’t an Eagle anymore, but Free Agency champ Milton Williams certainly feels like he should be on this list, especially over Josh Sweat (again). Williams signed a 4/$104m contract with the Pats to become the 2nd highest paid DT in the league. That wasn’t for nothing. 6 defensive tackles made the list. I can’t put him over any of the 6, but it’s still surprising he isn’t in the Top 100.
I want to be angrier about Landon Dickerson’s omission, but no Guards made the list. I guess it is just an underappreciated position. It’s good to see Dickerson passing out beers to opposing players in the preseason though, lobbying for next year.
What They Got Wrong
Five offensive tackles were featured ahead of Jordan Mailata (one being Lane Johnson). Mailata wasn’t just PFF’s highest rated tackle last year, he was their highest rated player. Period. Mailata should be closer to Saquon Barkley (who he helped to one of the greatest seasons of all time) than he is to Laremy Tunsil (who helped absolutely no one on Houston’s terrible offensive line).
Chris Jones (12), Dexter Lawrence (17), and then Jalen Carter (43). For anyone else I don’t mind being subjectively behind but still close to the big name stars, but Carter is different. To see names like Derek Stingley (18), Brock Bowers (24), Xavier McKinney (30), Josh Jacobs (33), Budda Baker (34), and Nik Bonitto (38), who do not affect the game nearly as much, ahead of Carter is preposterous. He was the driving force behind the Eagles top ranked defense last year. A game wrecker of the highest order, no one forget that it was Carter’s ability to Gandalf the Rams in the snow that saved the Super Bowl dream1 .
This is a minor gripe, but AJ Brown is better than Amon-Ra St. Brown (20). With 44 more targets, ARSB had less than 200 more yards. Brown is simply a more dominant force.
I am a firm believer than the top 5 QBs in the league are quite a bit ahead of everyone else: Patrick Mahomes (5), Joe Burrow (6), Lamar Jackson (2), Josh Allen (3), and Jalen Hurts (19). The players put Jared Goff at #15 for some reason, but that is not my gripe. I simply do not understand in what world Patrick Mahomes is not #1 among QBs. What did he do wrong? He got back to the Super Bowl with a lesser team and beat Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson again. How does that drop him a peg? The amount of love those two get just doesn’t make any sense to me.
What They Got Right
I’m surprisingly happy with the Super Bowl MVP being named #19. Honestly, I was expecting him to be much further down the list based on all the hate he still receives in the media and online. The players respect him though, and I appreciate that (Jared Goff notwithstanding).
Cooper Dejean and Quinyon Mitchell finishing #60 and #49 respectively as rookies? Yes, please. It’s not like they did it with gaudy statistics either. Between them, they had 0 INTs and .5 sacks during the regular season. This means that their peers noticed and were truly impressed with the impact they had on this defense. That’s hard to do.
At #23, Lane Johnson is the second highest ranked tackle in the league going into year 13. How cool is that?2
On March 11, 2024, Philadelphia made a completely innocuous signing for 1/$3.5m. The only thing noteworthy about it was that it happened on the first day of free agency. Why were the Eagles in such a hurry to sign a nothing defensive end from the Saints? 18 months later, Zack Baun, the First Team All-Pro and 5th place DPOY finisher, was voted the 26th best player in the league? Are you kidding me???
How can we not be happy with Saquon Barkley at #1? Too often in sports, we can’t appreciate greatness while its happening because we are too consumed by wins and losses. I don’t think we could have possibly ignored Saquon last year though. Simply put, he had one of the greatest seasons of all time. We knew it was good, but then Week 12 against the Rams happened and 2000 yards was in play. Throw in the offseason drama and capping it with a Super Bowl and it was all truly special.3
- I shouldn’t need to explain, but “You …shall not… pass” ↩︎
- I will never forget the 2013 NFL Draft when we were worried we would not get one of the top 3 tackles. Then the Dolphins traded up and we were doomed…until they picked Dion Jordan. Amazing. ↩︎
- Here are some fun Saquon stats I learned while writing this. Of his 15 TDs last season, only 5 were under 15 yards. If you count the playoffs, its 20 TDs and 11 were 20+ yards. ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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