The NFL Top 100 is an annual television series counting down the top one hundred players in the National Football League (NFL), as chosen by fellow NFL players. The rankings are based on an off-season poll organized by the NFL, where players vote on their peers based on their performance for the recent NFL season. Only players that are not retired in the next season are eligible for consideration.[1]
In 2010, NFL Network aired The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players, an all-time top 100 list, with wide receiver Jerry Rice being voted as the number-one player. The following year, the network debuted their annual NFL Top 100, with quarterback Tom Brady being voted at the top. Brady holds the record for most number-one selections, with four (2011, 2017, 2018, and 2022). Fellow quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the only other player to have been voted number-one multiple times (2021, 2023). Non-quarterbacks to be voted number-one include running back Adrian Peterson (2013), defensive end J. J. Watt (2015), defensive tackle Aaron Donald (2019), and wide receiver Tyreek Hill (2024). Following Brady's retirement and resulting exclusion from the 2023 list, quarterback Aaron Rodgers holds the distinction of being the only player to be an NFL Top 100 selection each year of its existence.[2]
The NFL Top 100 list returned following the 2012 NFL season, running during the NFL's offseason.[6] Each episode of the season was followed up by NFL Top 100 Reaction Show, which featured NFL Network analysts reacting and voicing their opinions on the ten most recent players revealed on the list.[7] The series has run every offseason since, following the same countdown format and continuing to feature players and analysts reacting to the rankings.[8][9] NFL Films have also released annual lists of ten players who just missed the Top 100 listing.[10]
Players with most Top 100 selections
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been selected to the Top 100 list a record 14 timesVon Miller (left) and Trent Williams (right) have the most selections for a defensive player (10) and a non-quarterback (11), respectively
Several NFL players have expressed negative opinions of NFL Top 100. Responding to the 2021 list, Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle D. J. Humphries called the list "bullshit" and "made up" and cast personal doubt on if players actually vote, stating that he had never voted.[11] In 2022, former tackle Andrew Whitworth, a 3× NFL Top 100 selection himself, also asserted that not every player votes on the list, calling it a "joke" and "content filler".[12]
NFL.com writer Jeremy Bergman opined that Aaron Rodgers' inclusion and Joe Flacco's near-make on the 2024 list showed that "players continue to suffer simultaneously from recency bias and a misunderstanding of what the criteria for this exercise are, if there are any".[13]
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