NFL Top 100

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by NLC1054

How does does 14 touchdowns and 15 picks make him the best performer on offense?

It was based off anything he did as a Redskin, it was based off what he did while he was with the eagles. Let's be real about this. I mean it's called the Top 100 Players on 2011, meaning what players will be the best players in 2011. Or at least it does to everyone except the players, who just took the "no criteria" thing and ran with it.

Donovan got a lot of pity votes from the players. Period. I can understand players feeling like he'd been wronged by Mike Shanahan and voting him in, and I can understand then ignoring the players we do have because of that.

But I think the fan vote is closer to how things really are, even though the fan vote has no Redskins on it either.

When you're not a good team you're not going to get focused on, which is sad, because guys like Rak and Fletcher and even Landry deserved to be featured on that list.

Hopefully they use this whole stupid list as motivation.

How do McNabb's stats make him the best offensive player last year? Simply because the rest of the offensive players were mediocre at the very best - - so someone with similarly mediocre performance can be the best.

The reality of 2010 is that no offensive player was a stand-out. Some were hampered by injuries; some had off years; some just aren't very good. That is the way it was in 2010; pretending that it was something different may be comforting and may give false hope for 2011.

The great sports writer of the 30s and 40s, AJ Leibling, said this about false hope:

My favorite period of history was the Middle Ages. If you were born a serf, you lived as a serf and you died as a serf. There was no false hope.

The fan vote takes into accountlots of things that have nothing to do with performance on the field. Look at the fan voting for the MLB All-Star Game if you want an example. Are the 16 starting position players on both teams having the best year in their leagues in 2011. Please do not contort yourself into trying to answer that by saying "Yes". Fans vote for favorites and favorites are not always the best players.

Fans also undervalue some players who are either pains in the ass or are off-field problem children. Examples here might be Michael Vick, Ben Roethlisberger, T.O., Deion Sanders and ...

There are 22 starters on offense and defense. To be in the Top 100 players, a guy needs to be one of the two or three best at his position because some positions - - such as QB, DE, and WR are going to be over-represented.

Based on performance in 2010, which Redskin was one of the top four at his position in the NFL? Only Orakpo comes close to that - - and I would not put him that high on the list of DE/OLBs.