Category: 2011′s Top 10
No. 1: Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers
We all know the story of Aaron Rodgers and the top of the 2005 NFL Draft. That year was seen as something of a sub-par season for quarterback prospects largely due to the vintage year that preceded it. The San Francisco 49ers with the No. 1 overall choice had to decide between Alex Smith and [...]
No. 2: Justin Smith, DE, San Francisco 49ers
The Cincinnati Bengals once allowed Justin Smith to seek his fortune elsewhere in free agency. Maybe he was miscast in their 4-3 defense, or maybe he never realized his potential for the Bengals. Since that point in time he has been one of the best players in football for the 49ers. He’s not playing a [...]
No. 3: Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans Saints
Hard as it is to believe, there was once a time when Drew Brees wasn’t one of the best quarterbacks in the league. In fact, there was once a point where the San Diego Chargers were so disappointed with his development that they drafted his replacement, Philip Rivers, in the first round. From that point [...]
No. 4: Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit Lions
There isn’t a more athletically gifted receiver in the game than Calvin Johnson. At 6-foot-5 and 235lbs, Johnson is bigger, stronger, and in most cases faster player than those trying to cover him. That’s the holy trinity of unfair advantage and it all resulted in him beating up on coverage units seemingly at will last [...]
No. 5: Darrelle Revis, CB, New York Jets
Darrelle Revis is the unquestioned best cornerback in football. It wasn’t long ago the term “shutdown corner” was thought to be an anachronism, an extinct species no longer applicable to the modern game, but Revis changed that. Revis isn’t just capable of shutting down one side of the field, but in the Jets defensive system, [...]
No. 6: Rob Gronkowski, TE, New England Patriots
In a year in which records tumbled, Rob Gronkowski may have set the bar higher than anybody else. First he broke the all-time single-season touchdown record for tight ends, finishing the year with 17, and then he broke a 31-year-old record for receiving yards in a single season by a tight end. The 1,327 yards [...]
No. 7: Terrell Suggs, DE/OLB, Baltimore Ravens
There are some players that just set the tone for an entire defense and Terrell Suggs is one of those guys, and he does so on one of the league’s best units. Announcing himself as being from “Ball-So-Hard University” on the TV broadcasts, that’s a perfect description of the kind of game Suggs brings each [...]
No. 8: Eli Manning, QB, New York Giants
Any time a season ends with a Super Bowl ring, it will always be remembered fondly, but Eli Manning had a truly remarkable season that deserves looking at in more detail. The raw numbers are impressive in themselves: 4,933 yards, 29 touchdowns, 61% completion percentage, and a QB rating of 92.9 over the regular season, [...]
No. 9: Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals
It’s easy at times to forget just how good Larry Fitzgerald is. With all the quarterback woes in Arizona and the team falling from the contender status it maintained when Kurt Warner was under center, Fitzgerald seems to have slipped under the radar in the way great players playing on average teams often do. The [...]
No. 10: Jared Allen, DE, Minnesota Vikings
In a season when Jared Allen came within half a sack of the single-season record, it speaks volumes for the general standard of play and the number of records that were actually broken that he was bumped all the way down to 10th in the Top 101 list. In the midst of a disastrous season for [...]
