Everybody loves a good one-two-punch. After declaring Jacksonville’s Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye as the league’s best cornerback-duo in my position rankings a week ago, I thought about who the best tandems at all the other positions are. Obviously, this list only includes pairs players, who are on the field at the same time or alternate heavily. So you won’t find any quarterbacks here. Neither did I mention any combination of tight-ends since very little teams use multiple TE-sets, at least in the passing game, anymore. To make this list, both players have to be active right now. This led to two dynamic duos not making the cut. I also mentioned a couple of challengers for the group after each paragraph. Here’s what I came up with:
Category Archives: Player Rankings
Top 10 cornerbacks through the first ten weeks:
The position fans have the hardest time comparing players to each other and ranking them accordingly is cornerback. When people reach outside linebacker nominees in the Pro Bowl voting they look who has the most sacks and with defensive backs the number of interceptions is often the deciding factor. It’s just not that easy. To grade cornerbacks you have to watch the tape and understand their responsibility in the respective schemes. On film you can see if their coverage was that good the opposing quarterback didn’t want to throw their way, what position they were in prior to the pass, how they competed when the ball was in the air and which plays they were responsible for giving up. After watching multiple games of the best corners in the league, I decided to rank the top ten at the position up to this point of the season. This is an evaluation over a span of ten weeks, not who I think are the best in general. So some guys who have proven over time they are worthy of a spot didn’t make the cut, because they haven’t played at the level they are capable of. Here’s my list:
Rookie Stock Watch:
There have been some amazing rookie performances so far this season and it’s time to revisit the draft. Some of those young guys have exceeded expectations, while others have yet to play up to their potential or simply haven’t seen the field much as of now. You can never really tell how good your investment will be after just a couple of weeks, but I wanted to list my top 20 rookies at this point. Here they are:
NFL Quarterback Index:
With the landscape of quarterbacks in the NFL pretty unclear right now, I tried to do my best in ranking all 32 starters as of how I think of them right now, going into week six. I made up my own categories to list these guys among, but I didn’t define the difference between each of them. It’s more about which profile they fit and at which stage of their career I believe they are.
NFL All-Under 25 team
So I wanted to do a list of the best young players in the league and looked for the right age. We have a lot of great players 25 years and older, but under that age it was really hard for me to choose. So you won’t see guys like J.J. Watt, Rob Gronkowski or Lavonte David. Here it is:
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Top ten defensive players in the NFL right now:
After listing the top ten offensive players in the league last week, I did the same for the guys on the opposite side of the ball as well. Once again the criteria includes playmaking ability, consistency and being on the field. By that I mean players who contribute to their team’s success every week and who make plays in critical moments. Here’s my top ten:
Top ten offensive players in the league outside of the O-line:
At this point of the season a lot of analysts like to rank their top players by position, as we have gotten a good impression of the top players in the league. I chose a different way, as I decided to rank my top ten offensive players in the league right now outside of the O-Line regardless of position. My criteria includes playmaking ability, consistency and health. By that I mean players who have been contributors for their teams for the majority of the season and in critical moments. At the top stands:
All-NFL Team
With the Pro Bowl rosters set and the time to evaluate the regular season performances of the players around the league starting, I decided to come up with a roster I think features the NFL’s best players based on what they did this season and who I think give me the best chance to win ball games. On offense I can go with two tight ends, I can go five wide, but also bring in a fullback. On defense I can line up in a 3-4 as well as a 4-3. I can play man, zone, I can blitz a lot of different guys and push the pocket with only four guys rushing.
My roster doesn’t feature guys like Calvin Johnson or A.J. Green, who have missed a couple of games and couldn’t help their teams.
The margin of air between the players on the roster and the ones who just didn’t make it is very slim, but I had to come up with 53 names. So here they are:
NFL top 5 players by position for midseason: Defense edition
In this second edition of the top five players for each position I take a look at the defensive side of the ball. Once again this list is about what the players have done so far this season. So stats do matter, but it’s about the overall play, availability and what they have done for their team. Here is part two:
NFL top 5 players by position for midseason: Offense edition
With more than half the season gone by already you can now really start to evaluate the performances of the players. So I decided to make a list (yeah, I like lists) of the top five players for each position, starting with the guys on offense. Remember, this isn’t a list of the players who I think are the best in general, but rather how they’ve performed until this point of the season. So stats do matter to some degree, but it’s the guys overall play and the question how much they’ve helped their team (so availability also is a factor). There it is:
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