Falcons Land 4 players on Top 100 List
The Bleacher Report’s Matt Shervington took on the impossible task of ranking the best 100 players in the NFL today.
The entire list – plus his honorable mentions – is broken up into 10 sections, but you can start your journey here.
Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson are the top three but hit the jump to see what, if any, Atlanta Falcons made the list.
Honorable Mention
Jonathan Babineaux, Defensive Tackle
"Shervington: His production has been nice, but are they the result of not being gameplanned for?"
Falcons in the Top 100
79.) John Abraham, Defensive End
"Shervington: In every season that Abraham started all 16 games prior to last year he recorded double digit sacks. In the four seasons in which he did not complete the year he averaged .72 sacks per game. Even with last year’s lack of sacks John Abraham averages 11 sacks per every 16 games in his career.While I am not trying to compare the two directly I think I can utilize the numbers to put things into perspective; at least from a numbers perspective. Reggie White averaged 13.65 sacks per 16 games throughout his career in comparison to Abraham’s 11.Abraham is an incredibly underrated player who’s career has been marred by a string of injuries and a lack of effort in run defense. Those things aside he is still one of the best pass rushers that generation Y has gotten to see."
71.) Roddy White, Wide Receiver
"Shervington: As it stands White has never been in an ideal situation for an entire season. White has yet to have Michael Turner, Tony Gonzalez and Matt Ryan play alongside him for an entire 16 game season.It is scary to think what he could do from a production standpoint with the entire Falcons offense remaining healthy.White has tremendous range and can run every single route in the route tree. Though he has a preference for the right side of the field White has no problem producing on both sides of the field as well as going over the middle. He has incredibly soft hands and doesn’t drop many balls."
"Shervington: While Turner’s backups (Jerious Norwood and Jason Snelling) are both very talented they didn’t provide what Turner did…the ability to take over games.Turner’s absence made things a lot harder on the Falcons offense, as much of its potential went out of the window.Some may disagree with Turner’s positioning but to that I say “just wait” because I believe that if Turner stays healthy. he will light the league on fire."
"Shervington: Tony Gonzalez has been the mark for comparison at the tight end position over the last decade. If you wanted to know if your tight end was elite during the 2000s, you compared his production and blocking to Tony Gonzalez.There are only four other players in the entire league that could have said that during that span. Those four players are all probably future Hall of Famers.While Tony Gonzalez is on the downslide of his career, and this will probably be his last year in the league, what he brings to the table is still amazing."
Your Turn
Are there any Falcons who should have made the list? Are you disappointed Atlanta doesn’t have a player ranked higher than 49th? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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