Unheard of: 3 LA Rams make CBS Pete Prisco’s Top 10. 3 snubbed

The LA Rams have not exactly been getting accolades so far this off-season, despite their status as defending NFL champions. But CBS NFL Insider Pete Prisco’s Top-100 players list is bucking the trend, listing three LA Rams players among his NFL Top 10 list.

That type of honor is practically unheard of, but that is what the LA Rams have earned after putting up one helluva Super Bowl Run last year. But one of the challenges of having so many players shine so brightly is that the spotlight failed to capture other stars who were certainly earned the right to appear on this list.

Just to make it official, the three LA Rams to appear in the Top 10 are:

• Rank         Player
•   1               DL Aaron Donald
•   5               WR Cooper Kupp
• 10              DB Jalen Ramsey

Prisco’s Top-10 was dominated by NFL quarterbacks, four of them to be exact, but LA Rams QB Matthew Stafford was not among them.

Other LA Rams players who appear on his list? Well, you may suspect at least three more players, but that would be overly optimistic, don’t you think?

• Rank Player
• 48              QB Matthew Stafford
• 93              ILB Bobby Wagner

So who may have been cited on this list who was snubbed?

Rams continue to be snubbed

I believe that Leonard Floyd, who put up 9.5 QB sacks and 70 tackles while playing the entire season on a bad wheel deserved a spot. Instead, lazy research valued Khalil Mack’s six sacks and 19 tackles in just seven NFL games as worthy of a 43rd ranking on his list?

Preposterous.

Nor was there any mention of LA Rams offensive tackle Rob Havenstein, who helped to anchor the LA Rams offensive line, playing 956 offensive snaps in the regular season and 21 games overall for the team. But they found cause to mention Kansas City Chiefs OG Joe Thuney, who played 1,185 offensive snaps, sliding him in at 96. And there is Philadelphia Eagles OT Lane Johnson, who only suited up for 13 games, in at 90? He played 821 offensive snaps.

Ridiculous.

Green Bay Packers NT Kenny Clark, who played 16 games for 4.0 sacks and 48 tackles, got the nod at 92. Who didn’t appear on the list? LA Rams NT Greg Gaines, who started in just 13 games but put up 4.5 sacks and 55 tackles. And he did more in 780 defensive snaps, two fewer defensive snaps than Clark.

Inconceivable.

In the end, it’s clear that these Top (insert number here) offseason rankings are based more on subjective habit than any truly objective criteria. Whether it comes in the form of some hype to sensationalize a young and promising NFL player, or simply holding onto the fading reputation of some past NFL great, the lists are growing more and more predictable.

If you start off with Aaron Donald as number one in any NFL ranking, you are off to a good start. But any list that barely lists QB Matthew Stafford among the top 50, and fails to list OT Rob Havenstein, OLB Leonard Floyd, and NT Greg Gaines?

Well, it’s time to ship it back to the drawing board.