You'll be shocked at the 6 Rams who are not on this Top 100 list and 1 who is
By Bret Stuter
The NFL offseason fills the void of actual newsworthy stories in one of three ways: Revisiting the past, featuring coaches' and players' stories in the present, or projecting or ranking teams or players in the future. Well, CBS Sports NFL analyst Pete Prisco is taking a stab at the latter option as he has unveiled his NFL Top 100 Players of 2024. Unfortunately, Pete Prisco's list is a repetitive fawning of players from the same six NFL teams:
- San Francisco 49ers
- Dallas Cowboys
- Baltimore Ravens
- Houston Texans
- Miami Dolphins
- Philadelphia Eagles
While I won't deny that many players from those team are truly solid, I would argue that the bias to revisit the same six teams in any listing of stars for the 2024 NFL season creates a shroud of insincerity about the entire product.
Am I embittered that only one player for the LA Rams appears on the list? Perhaps. But in a rookie season in which WR Puka Nacua broke the NFL All-Time Rookie Receiving records, and finished fourth overall in receiving yards in 2023, you have every right to expect him to appear higher than the 10th WR on that list, and 66th overall player.
How many LA Rams were snubbed? The list is shockingly longer than you might think:
- RB Kyren Williams - If Prisco can assign the eighth overall ranking to San Francisco 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey, and the 91st overall ranking to Tennessee Titans RB Derrick Henry, how can he exclude RB Kyren Williams from the LA Rams? I mean, come on man? He fell short of Henry's yardage by 23 yards (1,144 to 1,167) despite playing in five fewer games. The lackadaisical manner of evaluating running backs produced a controversial and undefendable ranking for players in that position. (8th, 91st, none)
- NT Kobie Turner - Once again, the methods of Pete Prisco resemble that of talking head Skip Bayless. He touts Philadelphia Eagles DT Jalen Carter as the 93rd overall ranked player, but Carter put up 6.0 sacks and 33 tackles in 2023. Did he miss the fact that NT Kobie Turner, who played nose tackle on an odd-man front, put up 9.0 sacks and 57 tackles? How else do you evaluate interior defensive linemen?
- OLB Byron Young - What a lazy list. He put Houston Texans OLB Will Anderson at the 99th overall ranking and justified it with the fact that Anderson won DROY. Sadly, all he did was double down on the disrespect shown to OLB Byron Young, a rookie who put up 61 tackles and 8.0 quarterback sacks in 2023. Anderson could only manage 45 tackles and 7.0 quarterback sacks last season. So much for objective assessment, eh?
- ILB Ernest Jones - Pete Prisco dubs Baltimore Ravens ILB Roquan Smith as the 40th overall ranked NFL player. While Smith recorded 158 tackles and 1.5 quarterback sacks in 16 games, I would argue that Rams Ernest Jones had just as impressive and impactful of a season with 145 tackles and 4.5 quarterback sacks in only 15 games. So how can Smith be 40th, and Jones not even get mentioned? The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind
- RG Kevin Dotson - While offensive linemen are certainly among the toughest positions in the NFL to objectively assess, Pete Prisco does not hesitate to tout offensive linemen. giving 16 players from the offensive line a Top-100 ranking. So how could he leave out Rams offensive guard Kevin Dotson? He awarded Baltimore Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum the 100th overall ranking, Dallas Cowboys offensive guard Zach Martin a 94th overall ranking, and Kansas City Chiefs offensive guard Trey Smith a 90th overall ranking, and not one of those players were even in the same ballpark as that of LA Rams offensive guard Kevin Dotson. These oversights are beginning to feel less of just random errors, and almost as though the guy has a vendetta against Rams players.
- QB Matthew Stafford - It's impossible to overlook the impact of LA Rams veteran QB Matthew Stafford. After all, he is the most recent NFC quarterback to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. But somehow, Prisco ranked 15 NFL quarterbacks among his Top 100 and did not include Stafford among them. In fact, he ranked six AFC quarterbacks before he even ranked his first NFC quarterback. The problem with the listing is that Matthew Stafford was the 11th-best NFL quarterback, despite sitting out two games. So Kirk Cousins, Jalen Hurts, Justin Hebert, and Lamar Jackson are all better quarterbacks, despite throwing for fewer passing yards in more games? That's a hard argument to make.
Of all of the players and heroics from the 2023 NFL season, CBS Sports NFL analyst Pete Prisco can only find one player on the LA Rams roster who is worth a Top 100 ranking? No wonder so many Rams fans have become frustrated and disenchanted with offseason rankings.
I would argue that at least seven players on the Rams roster legitimately deserves a Top 100 ranking, and I may have missed a player or two. That is not due to wearing rose colored classes or simply taking stabs in the dark. With each alternative listed above, I've cited objective reasons why the Rams players has objective evidence to appear on the Top 100 list.
Of course, that presumes that an objective and defenable list was the goal.
Thanks for reading.