Pro Football Focus has released its annual list of the top 101 players in the NFL. The list is comprised solely based on player performances during the 2019 season and postseason. They also don’t take into account positional value in their rankings.
In 2018, the Chiefs had seven players rank among the 101 with six in top 40. This time around only five players made it onto the list and three players in the top 40. Let’s go through what PFF had to say about each of the players, and I’ll provide my own take on their rankings.
No. 4 Patrick Mahomes:
“Patrick Mahomes was the reigning league MVP this season, but we really didn’t see that player until the postseason due to a list of injuries he suffered. A dislocated kneecap looked like it could torpedo his year, but he missed just two games and then started to find his best play late in the campaign. Heading into the Super Bowl, his postseason grade was the best we had ever seen from a quarterback, and while he struggled more in the big game, he still made several critical huge plays and was rightfully named the game’s MVP. Mahomes had 32 big-time throws over the season and finished with a PFF grade north of 90.0 for the second straight season.”
I know that PFF only takes the current season into account when creating these rankings, but it feels like Mahomes’ Super Bowl-winning season should be ranked higher than his MVP-winning season. When you consider the adversity he faced with injury and the comebacks that Mahomes had to mount during the postseason, Mahomes should easily be moving up in this list and not down. Of course, I’m not sure those things are accounted for when it comes to PFF’s grading system.