With 1,696 active players in the NFL every game day, and with hundreds circulating throughout practice squads and filling in for injured players, there are a whole lot of names to choose from each year. Only the best find themselves on the annual NFL Top 100 Players list, as voted on by the players, and only the best of the best find themselves in the Top 10.
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And that's where we are now. Players No. 100 through 11 have been revealed, with some significant drops (Lamar Jackson went from No. 1 to No. 24) and some big rises (Stefon Diggs went from No. 54 to No. 11).
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The good news, again, is that we've now reached the top 10. The bad news is that we'll have to wait until Sunday, August 29 to see the order in which they were ranked by their peers throughout the league. But knowing their names is enough to pique our interest, and the NFL let us in on those ten players — guys who, through process of elimination in the first 90 names on the list, we might have been able to figure out on our own.
In alphabetical order, here are the ten stars, with their ranking on last year's list in parentheses:
— Davante Adams (57)
— Josh Allen (87)
— Tom Brady (14)
— Aaron Donald (3)
— Derrick Henry (10)
— DeAndre Hopkins (8)
— Travis Kelce (18)
— Patrick Mahomes (4)
— Aaron Rodgers (16)
— T.J. Watt (25)
For Adams, Allen, Kelce and Watt, 2021 marks their first year to ever appear in the top 10. For others, like Brady and Rodgers, the top 10 is nothing new; they've made it 15 times, combined, since the list started following the 2010 season. These two veteran quarterbacks, along with Aaron Donald, have all claimed the No. 1 spot before. Despite winning MVP and Super Bowl MVP in 2018 and 2019, respectively, Mahomes finished at No. 4 on the list in both seasons.
And now, I'm going to predict how the rankings will ultimately unfold — not how I feel, necessarily, but how I think players may have voted — because why not?
10. DeAndre Hopkins
9. T.J. Watt
8. Josh Allen
7. Davante Adams
6. Travis Kelce
5. Derrick Henry
4. Tom Brady
3. Aaron Donald
2. Aaron Rodgers
1. Patrick Mahomes
I'll see how I did on Sunday, August 29 on NFL Network and all over the NFL's social media pages.
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