Evaluating the NFL Top 100 Players List From the Chiefs' Perspective
Earlier this week, the NFL officially wrapped a bow on its annual, player-voted Top 100 Players of 2022 list. If you were a Kansas City Chiefs supporter, whether or not you intended for it to, you had a thought or two that you simply couldn’t shake when it came to discussing this year’s edition.
Based on their contributions during the 2021-22 NFL campaign, the Chiefs had three players — technically five if you count Tyreek Hill and Tyrann Mathieu — crack the group in Patrick Mahomes (No. 8, previously No. 1), Travis Kelce (No. 10, previously No. 5) and Chris Jones (No. 39, previously No. 34).
It’d be easy to go into “superfan” mode, arguing that the trio didn’t deserve to each accrue slight drops in the year-to-year rankings, assuming one values this type of thing in incredibly-high regard. The truth is, there’s some truth to it. Player for player, their production slid from the season prior. This adds to 2022-23’s intriguing subplot in considering if, with another year under their legs, these three greats can get even greater.
With respect to those clear facts, here are three other takeaways that stood out from the list:
Six rookies, but no Creed Humphrey?
At this rate, it might be time to investigate the All-22 film to see if Creed Humphrey didn’t accidentally push a defender into an award ballot voter during one of his famed second-level blocks.
It’s become an annual trend, snubbing the talented Chiefs center with accomplishments on the line. Last December, it was a Pro Bowl distinction; in January it was the All-Pro nod. This time, the players overlooked the 6-foot-5, 309-pounder on the top 100 list.
Unfortunately, the “he’s only a rookie” viewpoint doesn’t quite capture the snub accurately. Six different 2021 rookies (Kyle Pitts, Mac Jones, Rashawn Slater, Jaylen Waddle, Ja’Marr Chase and Micah Parsons) were all recognized.
One could maybe hypothesize that perhaps it’s more difficult to gauge an interior lineman’s impact — although if the actual players can’t, who can? Perhaps it could be that the sum of the Chiefs’ parts along their offensive line made it difficult to differentiate. After all, Humphrey wasn’t the only one putting defenders on their backsides last season.
Yet even that doesn’t quite hold weight, as each of the Chiefs’ offensive linemen was omitted despite having what ESPN considers to be the NFL’s No. 1-ranked offensive line. In Humphrey's case, he ranked first among interior linemen in offensive snaps (1,394) and Pro Football Focus' run blocking grade (93.1) while allowing just 10 pressures and one sack on 805 pass blocking snaps.
The timing felt right to appreciate interior linemen, with Trent Williams earning the highest ranking in its history (No. 14) and two centers in Corey Linsley and Jason Kelce making cameos. Instead, it looks as though Humphrey and his teammates will have to do what they’ve always done: block it out of the way and keep pushing.
Throw away the division crowns
The Chiefs have won the AFC West division title in every season from 2016 to 2021, boasting a 31-5 record against those opponents over that six-year span. Needless to say, that's pretty cool.
That fact, in some ways, took a backseat as the Chiefs were forced to look up at not one, but two different teams within the AFC West in the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders on the Top 100 list. Incredibly enough — and do with this information as you wish — no team in the NFL had more players on the list than the Chargers (8). ESPN’s NFL Rank 2022 had the same team atop its list.
Throughout the offseason, the question of who (if anyone) will be the team to usurp the Chiefs and remove them from the division throne has been one to discuss. In a sense, this could qualify as bulletin board material for Kansas City, who will catch the Chargers in Week 2 of the regular season. It’s difficult to remember a division with this much star power potential. The Chiefs, despite proving that they can hang, will have plenty to compete with in just a few weeks.
Who’s most likely to crack this list next season?
The Humphrey snub is often the most publicized. It might be easy to be dismissive of the Chiefs’ defense given its struggles last season but in what should be a much younger, more physical, more athletic version in 2022-23, the groundwork has been laid for a few up-and-comers to match eye-popping plays with the impact to match. The two players that immediately come to mind:
Nick Bolton and Willie Gay.
The interchangeable features and versatility within this year’s group also give the likes of Justin Reid and Juan Thornhill a considerable case. Bolton feels like a favorite, not only in that he’s embracing the role as a three-down linebacker and green dot player, but also in that there are already both numbers and film that show what he’s capable of as one of the leaders of the group.
One way to make players remember your name when it comes time to list off the best at the position: make plays all over the field. In a short time, the former Missouri Tiger has done such in 2021, leading the NFL in tackles for a loss on runs (13).
He also joined elite company, becoming one of just nine rookies since 2000 to map out a 110-plus tackle, 10-plus TFL campaign. Around this time a year from now, it feels safe to say that fellow NFL players — not a mere Chiefs writer — will be telling you about how elite he is, instead. The same could be said about other members of the 2022-23 squad, too.
