Our long national rollout is over, and after a two-month-long countdown, the "Top 100 Players of 2025" have been revealed in full.
After Tyreek Hill made history last year as the first-ever wide receiver to take the crown, Saquon Barkley just became the first running back to earn No. 1 honors in the annual ranking since Adrian Peterson in 2013.
While Barkley's debut season in Philadelphia made him an obvious choice for the top slot, some other decisions made by the voters this year were not quite as on target, at least in my book.
Here are my top five quibbles with the 15th annual "Top 100 Players" countdown.
1) Too many Eagles? Too many Eagles.
In the months after Philadelphia won its second Super Bowl title, Saquon Barkley said the 2024 Eagles were a top-five team in NFL history. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year makes a similar statement in the upcoming "America's Game" documentary.
Based on the "Top 100" voting, it appears players around the league wouldn't dispute that the '24 Birds had the best collection of players in at least the last 15 years.
Case in point: Ten members of the Super Bowl champion Eagles made the "Top 100" this year. Do the rudimentary math -- that's 10 percent of the list. Since the ranking debuted after the 2010 season, no team has seen its players represented in the double digits. The Tom Brady Buccaneers had eight in 2021. Kansas City has seen excellence in large numbers, as well, but at the top of the ranking (Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones each finished among the top 10 in 2023 and '24). What Philly has accomplished, in the eyes of today's players, is unheard of in recent NFL history.
But are there too many Eagles here? I'd argue yes.
The one Philly player to make the list but not return to the team, Cardinals OLB Josh Sweat, snuck in at No. 95 -- and he doesn't need to be here. He played just 59 percent of the defensive snaps during the regular season, per Next Gen Stats. He didn't have a career year by basic statistical standards. Not that such takes are anything Sweat needs to worry about. He cashed in on his big postseason performance, collecting $41 million guaranteed from Arizona in the offseason.
It's a joy to see Jordan Mailata finally recognized in this ranking. A former rugby player from Australia, Mailata earned a major extension, second-team All-Pro honors and a Lombardi lift in the span of 12 months, which is something special. But the star left tackle was topped in this year's countdown by not one but two rookie defensive backs from Philly in Quinyon Mitchell (No. 49) and Cooper DeJean (No. 60). Howie Roseman hit two home runs by taking the CB duo in the 2024 draft, significantly fortifying an already-stout defense. But as much as Mitchell and DeJean were critical to Philly's unit as first-year players, they benefited much more from the pieces surrounding them -- an all-time DC in Vic Fangio, entrenched leadership in Brandon Graham and Darius Slay, and a deep bench in the front seven.
This is not to discredit Sweat, DeJean and Mitchell, but the '24 Eagles, apparently a top-five team of all time, more resembled a perfect sum of parts than a collection of individual standouts worthy of "Top 100" shine. The voters could have done better than to make their 2025 list so reliant on the champions, and the aforementioned three players would have been worthy casualties to make room for some forgotten players. Speaking of ...
2) Where have all the good guards gone?
Wanted: Interior offensive linemen to be recognized in this ranking -- or anywhere, for that matter. With Jason Kelce breaking records as this generation's Edward R. Murrow and Zack Martin and Frank Ragnow also in retirement, there's a severe dearth of name-brand guards and centers to captivate the imaginations of "Top 100" voters.
This is an annual issue, but it was even more pronounced this time around. Only one guard or center made the list: Chiefs C Creed Humphrey, an afterthought at No. 93.
Why is there so little respect for interior offensive linemen? As Kansas City learned (again) in the Super Bowl, shoddy blocking can sabotage a championship campaign.
As a first-team All-Pro guard, former Chief Joe Thuney -- now with the Bears -- could have made this list. The same goes for Thuney's former teammate, Trey Smith, and fellow first-team All-Pro guard Quinn Meinerz. Quenton Nelson or Chris Lindstrom, who've seen this list before, are worthy candidates, as is rising guard Landon Dickerson of the ... Wait, never mind -- no more Eagles.
Front offices are starting to pay top interior offensive linemen like tackles -- and there are seven OTs on this year's ranking. Why can't guards/centers' teammates treat them with the same respect?
3) Jared Goff over Jalen Hurts? Jayden Daniels as QB7?
A fun viral query has dug into the heart of the American psyche recently: What are the four "major" cities in the United States? Sure, there are the obvious ones: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, economic and cultural capitals of the nation. And then ... Miami? San Francisco? Philadelphia?! (No, no more Eagles.)
The football version of this is on full display in this year's "Top 100" countdown. There seems to be a consensus that the top four quarterbacks in the NFL are, in alphabetical order, Josh Allen (No. 3 in this ranking in '25), Joe Burrow (No. 6), Lamar Jackson (No. 2) and Patrick Mahomes (No. 5). The four signal-callers have five league MVPs, six Super Bowl appearances, three Super Bowl MVPs and three titles between them. (Mahomes is doing the heavy lifting there.)
But behind these AFC heavyweights, who is next in line?
The "Top 100" voters say that that man is Jared Goff. The stats and story are in his favor. He's helped turn around a woebegone franchise over the last three years, leading the Lions to a No. 1 seed in 2024 with a career year (72.4 completion rate, 4,629 yards, 37 TDs, 111.8 passer rating).
Unfortunately for Goff, his storybook season ended in the Lions' first game of the playoffs, while the two quarterbacks right behind him, Jalen Hurts and Jayden Daniels, had deeper runs. Goff threw three picks in an upset loss to Daniels' Commanders in the Divisional Round, while Hurts won the title with Philly and was named Super Bowl MVP, capping off one of the great postseason runs.
Taking a season in its totality, Hurts probably deserves to be ahead of Goff, and by next offseason, Daniels could outpace both of them.
4) Marlon Humphrey among DBs shut out by WRs.
A reigning first-team All-Pro cornerback was not recognized in this year's "Top 100", and he can blame wide receivers for his misfortune.
Marlon Humphrey racked up a career-high six interceptions last season and was an All-Pro slot corner alongside Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II and Derek Stingley Jr., but for the second straight season, Humphrey did not make the ranking.
Is the Ravens star's enigmatic social media presence to blame? Who's to say?
I'd argue Humphrey's absence is, once again, the fault of well-known receivers clogging up spots on the "Top 100" ranking. Though there were fewer this year (16) than in past years, wideouts outpaced their contemporaries in the defensive backfield again (seven CBs, six safeties).
The fantasy-fiction of NFL fandom is how you end up with name-brands Jerry Jeudy (ranked No. 82), Drake London (No. 97) and Ladd McConkey (No. 100) in, and the likes of Humphrey, Jaycee Horn and Byron Murphy out.
5) Justice for teams shut out.
Twenty-seven teams are represented on this year's countdown, leaving five clubs without a player recognized as one of the best in the sport. That's just not nice. (Blame the Eagles, again, for preying on so many spots.)
Here's my consolation collection for those franchises that went oh-fer:
The Titans, who have nine wins in the past two seasons combined, are surprisingly top-heavy, not that this ranking would reflect that situation. Any one of Jeffery Simmons, Calvin Ridley or Tony Pollard could have cracked this year's countdown. Pollard is coming off one of his best seasons, Ridley is still a top talent floundering in the attention wasteland of the South divisions, and Simmons, a Pro Bowler in 2024, was ranked No. 73 in last year's list. What gives?
Demario Davis is as sure as they come, so why, after posting a career-high in tackles (136) in 2024, did the Saints linebacker fail to net a fifth straight appearance?
The Colts boast two 2024 second-team All-Pros in the aforementioned Quenton Nelson and linebacker Zaire Franklin, both of whom have been honored before by their peers. Why not this year?
Jaylon Johnson, a Pro Bowler in each of the past two seasons, and DJ Moore are two of the most consistent players in the league, but neither Bears star has ever cracked the "Top 100" ranking, a slight that should change next year.
The Panthers likely lost a "Top 100" sure thing last season when DT Derrick Brown suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 1. But despite a disappointing year in Carolina, either Jaycee Horn (a 2024 Pro Bowler) or Chuba Hubbard (eighth in the NFL in rushing) could have been considered by peers in this exercise.
