LA Rams: 5 players appear in “CBS Top 100”

CBS Sports has released its annual Pete Prisco’s Top 100 NFL Players of the Year, and the LA Rams did okay. Well, the LA Rams 2020 Top-Ranked defense did fairly well, as that unit boasted three overall nominees and boasted two of the Top-15 players. That’s a pretty huge endorsement, as the Rams defense was a bit ‘meh’ just one year prior. As for the offense? Well, the Rams can move the ball effectively, but they struggled to score in 2020. That’s not very impressive for the pomp and pageantry of NFL rankings.

The 2021 article listing the Top 100 players begins by citing the assertion that quarterback drives the list, but then completely undervalues new LA Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford all the way to 88th? As many as a dozen teams hotly pursued Stafford from the moment that the Detroit Lions placed him on the trade block.

Younger quarterbacks may develop into something special, but the trend in the NFL is to project a solid rookie partial season into a superstar career. It seldom happens that way, although someone is bound to argue the point.

Rams players undervalued

Five of the top ten listed are quarterbacks, eight of the top 50 are quarterbacks. I don’t see Justin Herbert at 38 after one partial season. The kid is talented, yes. But he’s better than all but 37 NFL players? That’s a stretch. Dak Prescott at 50 is another head-scratcher. He was out virtually all of 2020.

The Rams are just one of 32 NFL teams but have populated the top 100 list with five players. That’s good enough for 1/20th of the list.  I am a bit surprised that the list had no room for either Robert Woods or Cooper Kupp. They have been perennial 1000 yard receivers and can block and rush effectively as well.

I must also admit that I would not have been surprised to see running back Cam Akers on the list, as his debut in the second half of the NFL season helped propel the Rams into the playoffs.  So let’s see who did make the list: