Tag: top 101

Garett Bolles makes PFF’s list of Top 101 players in the NFL

Congrats to Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles for making PFF’s list of the top 101 players in the NFL!

Before the NFL’s new year began on March 13 with the official opening of the free agent tampering period, Pro Football Focus released its list of the top 101 players from the 2023 season. Only one Broncos player made the list: left tackle Garett Bolles.

Although Bolles made the list at No. 99 out of 101, PFF praised the 2017 first-round draft pick.

“Bolles was an iron man for the Broncos, playing more than 1,000 snaps at left tackle and earning excellent PFF grades in the process,” Sam Monson wrote on PFF’s website. “He posted an 83.8 PFF pass-blocking grade, the second-best mark of his career.”

Bolles has been a stalwart member of the Denver offensive line since he was drafted. Bolles had severe holding issues at the beginning of his career, but eventually, coaches saw enough improvement in his play to reward him with a four-year, $68 million extension in November 2020. That deal will expire after the 2024 campaign.

Do the Broncos keep Bolles around after 2024, or will he be another veteran casualty of a rebuilding franchise? Only time will tell.

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Touchdown Wire ranks Broncos RB Javonte Williams among NFL’s Top 101 players

Javonte Williams ranks No. 96 in Touchdown Wire’s Top 101 NFL players list.

Javonte Williams is considered one of the top offensive players for the Denver Broncos. Although he only played four games in 2022 due to tearing the ACL and LCL in his knee, Williams had a strong rookie season, which allowed for the hype to be a franchise cornerstone to commence.

In his debut season in 2021, Williams ran for 903 yards and four touchdowns. Williams performed that well despite playing in a shared backfield, starting in just one of the 17 games he played in. With his return for the 2023 NFL season, the expectation is for Williams to attempt to build on his strong 2021 season and be a pivotal player in the Sean Payton-era Broncos attack. 

Touchdown Wire has just released the first part of its Top 101 NFL players list (101-76), and despite Williams’s injury, they still ranked the Broncos running back at No. 96. What spurred this for the third-year Denver tailback? A 2022 regular season injury derailed a strong 2021 season.

“Williams’ issue wasn’t regression; it was injury,” Doug Farrar wrote on Touchdown Wire. “A knee injury cut his 2022 season short at just four games, though he was still quietly ridiculous when healthy, even with an offense that was collapsing around him.”

Williams will get a chance to capitalize and build off his 2021 NFL season in full against the Las Vegas Raiders to start the 2023 NFL season on September 10th. 

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Broncos CB Pat Surtain ranked 32nd on PFF’s Top 101 Players list

PFF has released its list of the top 101 players in the NFL and Broncos CB Pat Surtain is ranked No. 32.

Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain has made the Pro Football Focus list of their 101 best players from the 2022 NFL season. Pro Football Focus uses its cutting-edge data to track a player’s impact, and Surtain’s play landed him at No. 32 on the list. PFF’s Sam Monson spoke on Surtain’s placement on the list, highlighting Surtain’s ability to lock down his opponents. 

“Surtain is one of the game’s smoothest and most in-control cornerbacks, Monson wrote. “With Denver’s offense struggling, pressure was always on the defense to lock down opponents, and Surtain consistently excelled at that task. Only Sauce Gardner had a higher PFF coverage grade this season.”

Surtain’s play landed him above other star cornerbacks, such as Jalen Ramsey, Stephon Gilmore, and Patrick Peterson. He would finish the season with ten passes defended and two interceptions, allowing just over 58% of completions thrown his way. Congrats to Surtain on this tremendous honor for the 2022 season. 

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Seahawks QB Geno Smith ranked 2nd-best potential free agent

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith is currently ranked No.2 in NFL.com’s list of 101 best potentially available free agents for 2023.

The start of the new league year and free agency is just around the corner and the Seattle Seahawks have some difficult decisions to make. None could be more important than what to do at the quarterback situation. Geno Smith is set to become an unrestricted free agent if he and the Seahawks aren’t able to come to terms on a new deal.

So where exactly does Smith stand compared to the rest of the free-agent competition? Gregg Rosenthal at NFL.com, who is careful to note his list could change as more veterans are released, currently has Smith ranked at No. 2 overall.

Only Ravens QB Lamar Jackson bested Smith at No. 1 of Rosenthal’s top 101 potentially available free agents around the league.

“Smith’s breakout season reminded me of the mid-career performances of two quarterbacks Smith played behind, Philip Rivers and Eli Manning,” Rosenthal writes. “There was incredible processing, along with jaw-dropping throws and risk-taking that could lead to turnover variance. He was a top-10 quarterback in 2022. The Seahawks want to keep the good times going, so they may get a deal done before a franchise tag is necessary.”

The franchise tag deadline is March 7 so the clock is ticking on that option.

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PFF Top 101 lists only 3 Cowboys while 13 Eagles make the cut

Zero Cowboys O-linemen make the ’22 list and Dak Prescott is M.I.A., yet the Super Bowl runners-up equal 13 percent of the countdown. | From @ToddBrock24f7

In the big picture, the 2022 Cowboys were as good as- if not slightly better than- the 2021 iteration. They matched last year’s regular season record of 12-5, and they even advanced one spot further in the playoffs.

But individually speaking, Cowboys players didn’t impress the writers at Pro Football Focus nearly as much this season… and they certainly didn’t match up to the NFC champs.

The outlet has always seemed to have a love affair with Philly, and the Eagles’ league-best regular-season mark provided the perfect opportunity for PFF to stan hard with this year’s list.

Their annual Top 101 list came out last week, and while three Dallas standouts were included, that number represents a big dropoff from the year prior. Seven Cowboys players made the list in 2021.

But an absurd 13 Eagles players somehow made the cut in 2022; last season, no team had more than seven guys in the top 101.

Here’s a look at which Cowboys did make the Pro Football Focus 101, along with what the outlet had to say about their 2022 seasons. We’ve also included a few key takeaways about who isn’t on the list this year and a rundown of where all those Eagles fell… just to spark some healthy debate about whether they all actually deserve to be there.

7 Chiefs among PFF Top 101 players of 2022

The #Chiefs had seven players named to PFF’s list of the top 101 players in the NFL during the 2022 season.

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 2022 season and postseason. They also don’t take into account positional value in their rankings.

In 2021, the Chiefs had six players in PFF’s top 101, but none of them ranked in the top 25. This year, they had seven players on the list with four players in the top 25. There are also three new players who made it onto the list, including two players added via the 2021 NFL draft. Let’s go through what PFF’s Sam Monson had to say about each of the players, and provide our take on their rankings.

Packers put only 2 players on PFF’s top 101 players list from 2022 season

Only Jaire Alexander and Aaron Jones made PFF’s list, highlighting the Packers’ lack of elite performances in 2022,

A lack of elite performances from top players highlighted the Green Bay Packers’ disappointing 2022 season.

One year after putting seven players on PFF’s top 101 players list for 2021, the Packers placed only two on the 2022 version of the list.

The two players on the top 101 players list represented the Packers’ fewest in a season since PFF started compiling the list in 2010. Matt LaFleur’s team suffered through a 1-7 stretch and finished 8-9, missing the postseason in 2022.

Here’s a quick look at the two players from the Packers on PFF’s top 101 list from 2022:

A pair of Saints defenders were selected for PFF’s top 101 players of 2022

A pair of Saints defenders were selected for PFF’s top 101 players of 2022, with Demario Davis and Tyrann Mathieu making the list:

A couple of New Orleans Saints standouts were recognized on the list of the top 101 NFL players of the 2022 season from Pro Football Focus analyst Sam Monson. They’re both veteran defenders, and they happened to lead the team in snaps played last season. But neither player made the cut for the top 50, which hurts, and only one of them was selected for the Pro Bowl Games all-star event.

Ah well. Tyrann Mathieu and Demario Davis figure to be a major part of the team’s success in 2023 anyway. Here’s what PFF had to say about each of them:

Seahawks have at least 2 players on PFF’s top 101 list for 2022

Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and safety Ryan Neal have both made PFF’s rankings of the top 101 players in the NFL from last season.

The Seahawks had at least two of the top 101 players in the NFL this past season, according to Pro Football Focus. PFF is releasing their annual list of the league’s best this week and two Seattle players have made the cut for the initial 100-50 rankings.

After putting together a Comeback Player of the Year campaign, quarterback Geno Smith was ranked No. 71 on their list:

“Before the season, it was almost impossible to foresee the kind of year Geno Smith would have at quarterback for the Seahawks. Only the Bills’ Josh Allen posted more big-time throws than Smith’s 34, with the veteran showing that he can do much more than act as a bridge quarterback.”

Meanwhile, Seattle’s pleasant surprise backup safety Ryan Neal came in at No. 70:

“Seattle’s defense was a surprising unit this season thanks in part to players like Ryan Neal at safety. He played almost 800 snaps for the Seahawks and posted an 84.4 PFF coverage grade thanks to six pass breakups and a very strong second half of the season.”

By rights both Seahawks star receivers Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf should crack the top 50, but that’s far from a guarantee. Nobody else aside from underrated outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu is deserving of making the cut.

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Pro Football Focus puts 7 Cowboys on Top 101, including 4 of 5 offensive linemen

The Cowboys are tied with a league-high number of players on the annual list, but the inclusion of one lineman may surprise some fans. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Pro Football Focus published its Top 101 list last week, spotlighting the best individual performances across all positions in the NFL.

The Cowboys landed seven players on the list in total. Six play on offense, and four of them are linemen. That’s perhaps surprising, given the run game struggles that Dallas experienced for most of the year. Only one Cowboys defender made the countdown; his identity won’t be a surprise at all, but his placement might be.

Twenty-five of the NFL’s 32 teams are represented on the list. The Cowboys, Rams, and Packers have the most players featured, seven each.