There are no two ways about it: Tennessee Titans safety Kevin Byard was snubbed from the NFL Top 100 Players of 2020 list compiled by his peers — and “Good Morning Football” host Peter Schrager agrees with me.
Schrager made his case for Byard deserving to make the cut and called him “one of the best safeties in the entire NFL”, which is accurate.
Take a look.
Everyone's upset over it, but which NFL player should really feel slighted by their NFL Network Top 100 rating? @PSchrags ➡️ @KB31_Era@MJD ➡️ @chanjones55 @KyleBrandt ➡️ @AustinEkeler pic.twitter.com/HMvRIclwWG
— GMFB (@gmfb) July 29, 2020
There are few safeties in the league who are as complete a player as Byard is. Not only is he a ball hawk who is great in coverage, he’s also elite against the run.
Since 2017, Byard has notched 18 interceptions (including playoffs), the most in the NFL. In 2019, the former third-round pick showed he has the chops in the run game, also, by posting the best Pro Football Focus run defense grade among all players at his position.
Byard has made one appearance on the NFL Top 100 before in 2018, which came after a 2017 campaign that saw him become a Pro Bowler and First-Team All-Pro in just his second season.
But since then, the Titans safety has been left off the list in each of the past two years. There’s simply no logical explanation for that.
Thankfully, Byard has received some respect from other outlets.
He was ranked as a top-10 safety by CBS Sports, Touchdown Wire placed him at No. 39 on its top 101 players list and ranked him as a top-three safety, and he received the fifth-best rating among safeties in Madden NFL 21.
Clearly some people have caught up to just how good Byard is, but interestingly enough his own peers are still sleeping on him.
[lawrence-related id=41325,41316,41269]
[vertical-gallery id=41115]