The NFL Network aired the finale of their top 100 players of 2011 series last night. Steelers SS Troy Polamalu finished 6th in the players-only voting.
Those ahead of Polamalu were as follows:
5. Ed Reed
4. Ray Lewis
3. Adrian Peterson
2. Peyton Manning
1. Tom Brady
I have a few thoughts on this list. First off, you can’t emphasize enough how meaningless something like this is. All that matters to most players is winning Super Bowls. This is merely something fun to talk about.
There is obviously no shame in being ranked behind any of those players. All but Peterson have already guaranteed their spots in Canton and Peterson is well on his way.
All that said, I do have a few gripes. From my understanding, the players were specifically to rate their peers on how good they are currently. If that is the case, there are a handful of middle linebackers currently better than Lewis. However, looking at the full list of 100 it is clear that the voters did take a players past into consideration and I have always wrote that I believe Ray Lewis is the best middle linebacker ever to play the game. While he isn’t the 4th best football player in 2011, it is hard to get upset anytime he gets an accolade.
There is sure to be lots of debate on wheter or not Reed should have been higher than Polamalu.
The two are very similar players. The common criticisms of Polamalu’s game (overaggressive, invisible at times, gets beat in coverage) can all be applied to Reed’s game too. Reed has had a better career overall, but has had more years to do so. Here’s a look at their numbers over the last three seasons combined:
| Games Played | Tackles | Sacks | Interceptions | |
| Troy Polamlau | 35 | 156 | 1 | 17 |
| Ed Reed | 38 | 128 | 1 | 20 |
My admittedly biased view is that Polamalu is the better player right now, but, as I mentioned earlier, history definitely played a big role in the voting so I’m not too upset about Reed being ranked so highly as he is one of the best players ever to line up at safety.
There are things worth getting worked up over and this isn’t one of them. It was a fun series to watch, though.
