- May 21, 2026
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From time to time, players will claim that they are uniquely positioned to assess the skills of other players. And then they'll completely undermine that position by making a horribly flawed assessment of a given player.
Case in point: In the NFL Network list of the NFL's top 100 players, as determined exclusively by players, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson came in at No. 69. A full sixty-seven spots below where he was ranked in 2025.
Sure, the Ravens didn't make the playoffs (barely). Yeah, Jackson missed four games due to injury. OK, his passing yards fell from 4,172 to 2,549. Right, his rushing yards dropped from 915 to 349.
Regardless, he's Lamar Jackson. There aren't 68 players better than him in the NFL. There aren't 28. There aren't 18. There arguably aren't eight.
So how did it happen? As the voting process was explained at some point during the years NFLN has conducted the top-100 voting, an unspecified number of players are asked to list their top 20 NFL players. Points are assigned, 20 down to one, based on where a player lands. If a player, no matter how objectively good he is, is having an off year, he'll slip farther than he should — because the players who are currently playing at a high level when a given ballot is constructed will end up in higher spots on more ballots.
Really, it's not on the players. The process is flawed. As evidenced by the fact that Lamar Jackson fell 67 spots to No. 69.
Case in point: In the NFL Network list of the NFL's top 100 players, as determined exclusively by players, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson came in at No. 69. A full sixty-seven spots below where he was ranked in 2025.
Sure, the Ravens didn't make the playoffs (barely). Yeah, Jackson missed four games due to injury. OK, his passing yards fell from 4,172 to 2,549. Right, his rushing yards dropped from 915 to 349.
Regardless, he's Lamar Jackson. There aren't 68 players better than him in the NFL. There aren't 28. There aren't 18. There arguably aren't eight.
So how did it happen? As the voting process was explained at some point during the years NFLN has conducted the top-100 voting, an unspecified number of players are asked to list their top 20 NFL players. Points are assigned, 20 down to one, based on where a player lands. If a player, no matter how objectively good he is, is having an off year, he'll slip farther than he should — because the players who are currently playing at a high level when a given ballot is constructed will end up in higher spots on more ballots.
Really, it's not on the players. The process is flawed. As evidenced by the fact that Lamar Jackson fell 67 spots to No. 69.